Religious Values and Educational Norms among Catholic and Protestant Teachers in Hungary

Abstract

There are several studies looking into the differences between state-run and church-run schools in the recruitment and retention of their teachers. In Hungary, where teachers of church-run schools do not have to meet any special official requirements, church-run education has seen a rapid expansion since 2011. The denominational schools in Hungary are faith-based government-dependent private schools. The number of both Catholic and Protestant schools has increased twofold, and the expansion is still continuing. The vast majority of the newest denominational schools used to be run by the state and were taken over extremely rapidly, along with all their teachers and students, by the church. In our present study, based on our analysis of the survey “Teachers in church-run educational institutions” (2015–2017, N = 1134), we compare Catholic and Protestant teachers from church-run schools. Our results show that there are only slight differences in teachers’ values in the different denominational schools, which implies that the value systems of those schools are highly similar. The detected differences do not depend on the denominations that operate the schools but rather on the individual teachers’ religious affiliation. The most marked differences, however, have been detected between the value systems of religious and non-religious teachers.

1. Introduction

Our study aims to examine whether the religiosity and educational values of teachers in different denominational schools are different. A total of 1137 teachers from Catholic and Protestant schools filled out our questionnaire. We examined their religious faith, religious beliefs, the frequency of religious practice, and their educational values. It was important for us to understand how consistent the educational value system of teachers is with the value system of the denomination of the schools in which the teachers work.

This brief introduction can help the reader to interpret the current transformation of the education sector. Hungary has a long historical tradition of church-related education belonging to several denominations. Additionally, the most important actors in education are the teachers who do the teaching work.

Hungary is traditionally a multi-denominational country, where the practice of religious tolerance goes back several centuries. It was no more than half a century after 1517, the start of the Reformation, that the Assembly of Torda declared the equality of three protestant denominations (Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian) and the Catholic Church in 1568. This was a unique manifestation of religious freedom in Europe. Before World War II, there was a multi-sector education system in Hungary, in which church-run institutions had had a large share for centuries. In 1948, one of the numerous anticlerical measures of the state socialist regime was to nationalize all church-run educational institutions with the exception of ten secondary schools (Pusztai 2006). Reopening was made possible only after the regime change in 1989 (Morvai 2017). The foundation of new and the repossession of old denominational schools gained momentum indeed, multiplying the number of church-run institutions, and the same scenario was played out in all the post-socialist countries that once belonged to the Soviet sphere (Pusztai and Bacskai 2015). Both the number of institutions and that of students in the church sector saw rapid growth (Pusztai 2004; Imre 2005), which then slowed down around the turn of the millennium. A new expansion was facilitated by an amendment that either nationalized the schools previously run by municipalities or allowed them to be handed over to other non-state organizations (Morvai 2017). At the time of our research, 15% of primary and 21% of secondary schools were run by a denomination, and their proportion is still on the increase. Slightly over 28% of denominational schools are operated by the Reformed Church, whereas 52% are operated by the Catholic Church. While Catholic schools are run by either a monastic order or a regional administrational unit of the church, Protestant schools have a wide range of school providers: in 2015, 80% were run by local congregations headed by the minister, which essentially means that almost every school has a different provider (Bacskai and Kelemen 2019). The varying lengths of time since the takeover of the schools as well as the wide range of school providers make it impossible to speak of a unified church-run education system. This is why research involving a wide range of teachers and schools is instrumental in exploring the differences between teachers in the different school sectors.

In the western world, the freedom of religion and parents’ free choice of school—including church-run education—are guaranteed by the state, and most countries have church-run schools. They fulfil various purposes in different countries depending on the development of the education system (Dronkers and Avram 2015). In all western countries, however, the status of the church and religion is undergoing a change as society is diversifying in terms of religion, and the proportion of religious people, especially of Christians, is declining. At the same time, the presence of other religions (especially Islam) is growing due to immigration. All of this is bringing about a change in the role of church-run schools. In some countries, even the legitimacy of church-run or religious schools has been questioned. In the Netherlands, for example, there are intentions to liberalize the recruitment procedures for students and teachers alike (Maussen and Vermeulen 2014). Sweden and Germany are also liberalizing their education systems, which may affect religious families unfavorably (Donnelly 2004).

In this state of transition, apart from examining the changes in society and state regulation, it is also worth looking at, of all the actors of education, the group which embodies the ideology of the school day by day, namely the teachers. If students and their teachers come from the same cultural background, it enhances the efficiency of education. Cultural matching has been researched from the viewpoint of race/ethnicity: if students and teachers come from the same racial/ethnical background, it can help them, including students’ families, to be on good terms with each other (Irvine 1989; Milner 2006; Quiocho and Rios 2000; Pusztai and Inántsy-Pap 2016). On the other hand, a shared ethnic background does not necessarily mean a shared cultural background, yet it can contribute to the development of culturally relevant pedagogy. Research has shown that students have a more positive attitude to teachers from their own ethnic groups, and the same can be assumed if the shared feature is religion or a value system.

Teachers at denominational schools whose taught subject is not religious education constitute a special group with respect to religiosity. There are two intersections of religious faith and schools. Most of the literature deals with the work, personalities, and performance of RE teachers (Elliott et al. 2018; Martela 2016). Another group that has been in the focus of researchers’ attention is religious teachers who teach at state schools (Wadsworth 2015; Nelson 2010; Thiessen 2013). The third group here is church school teachers whose taught subject is not religious education. Nevertheless, as they have not been researched so extensively, we also use the available research findings on the two former groups in our study.

The fact whether a school is religious or not can be examined using different indicators. One of them is the ethos of the school or the school provider. Most schools in Hungary are non-denominational, run by the state. Denominational schools are run by a church; therefore, the religious ethos is a primary feature of both the school milieu and the provider. As we mentioned above, providers range from dioceses to monastic orders in the Catholic Church and in Protestant churches even a single congregation can operate a school. There are also multi-denominational (ecumenical) schools run by various foundations with an ethos characterized by general Christian values. However, there are fewer than ten of them in the country and they cannot be classified as church-run schools because of their providers.

In some education systems, teachers who work at denominational schools are strictly required to adhere to the school’s religious principles; otherwise, they can be dismissed as their opinions might contradict the school’s ethos (Heinz et al. 2018). On the other hand, the question is whether one’s religious faith or the lack of it—or any other conviction—should surface in class and whether it influences the teaching process.

Thiessen (2013) argues that teachers cannot leave their transcendental conviction outside the classroom since it is such an integral part of their personalities that it would be impossible to conceal. According to White’s (2010) research, religious conviction may play a role even in the choice of the teaching career as many religious young people look upon teaching as a vocation from God. In line with the above researchers, Wadsworth (2015) proves that religious faith also plays a part in the development of one’s teaching style and interactions with students. Catalonian researchers (Baños et al. 2019) studied religious and non-religious school heads and found that Catholic school heads showed a higher degree of intercultural commitment and religious tolerance. This is a remarkable achievement in a province where the religious composition of the population is changing drastically.

Ene and Barna (2015) call attention to teachers’ views of students. They have found that religious teachers typically embrace a holistic image, which means that student performance is evaluated from the perspective of personality development rather than just in itself. Markus et al. (2019) point out that teachers play a major role in religious socialization, which can be best realized in teamwork, in cooperation with other agents such as parents.

Does the literature distinguish between the denominations and their values in its observations? Differences between Catholic and Protestant believers were already detected back at the dawn of sociological research. Durkheim (1897) and other authors (Lehrer 2008; Lenski 1961) noted that the preferred values of Catholics were community and tradition, whereas Protestants opted for freedom and autonomy.

Weber’s (2018) thesis is that Protestant work ethic influences people’s views on vocation and studying. Accordingly, Kim (1977) hypothesizes that those who profess to belong to the Protestant church and/or identify with the Protestant value system presumably have a higher level of education and are more successful at work. The hypothesis testing revealed that denomination membership alone does not have any effect, but identification with the value system does correlate with a higher occupational status and educational achievement.

Recent research tends to highlight the dichotomy between religious and non-religious rather than denominational differences, and it even finds differences between religions insignificant. Saroglou et al.’s (2004) meta-analysis involved 21 studies on the connection between religious affiliation and values in 15 countries. His results showed that religious people preferred traditional, conformist, and altruistic values and were less open to change and pursuing individual interests. Power and achievement were also values that religious people ranked low. The author did not break down his data into denominations but pointed out that the above value preference applied, regardless of religion, to Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. Schwartz and Huismans (1995) confirmed the correlation between religiosity and certain values, but did not find any differences between the denominations.

Religious faith and denomination membership can also influence the development of teachers’ educational values. Of these, tolerance is the one that is most often associated with schools’ or teachers’ religiosity. According to Allport and Ross’s (1967) theory, the community practitioners of religion are characterized by an attitude that thinks in types and rejects outgroups, that people with personal religious practice are more tolerant. According to research Pusztai (2020), individual religious practice is what does not in itself promote an inclusive attitude. However, in today’s post-socialist societies, individuals who are community practitioners of religion must have personal religious practice too. Religious people are often more tolerant, according to Leyser and Romi’s and Taylor and Sidhus’s research also (Leyser and Romi 2008; Taylor and Sidhu 2012). It is an especially sensitive issue in Northern Ireland, where denomination membership may be a crucial factor of intolerance, but elsewhere it may help to strengthen tolerance. Northern Irish research shows that teachers’ convictions and value systems determine the ethos of the school; therefore, if tolerance is dominant among teachers, so will it be in the school environment (Donnelly 2004).

The unique situation in Hungary is due to the fact that the expansion of the denominational sector did not only involve the foundation of new schools but also the takeover of old ones, that is to say, non-denominational schools became denominational without any disruption in the teaching process, from one day to the next. Teachers and students who started their careers in a non-denominational school suddenly found themselves in a denominational one. Those teachers who had no objections to teaching in a denominational school continued working there, regardless of their personal religious views. What makes our research unique in this situation is that we have an opportunity to study the convictions of teachers who are not religious in a strict sense.

In our earlier research, in line with other researchers, we did not draw a distinction between individual denominations within the church sector. Nevertheless, denominational identity seems to generate significant differences in the development of the education system. Sharpe attributes the structural differences between British and French primary education to norms deeply rooted in Protestant ethic and Catholicism (Sharpe 1997).

Several studies provide evidence to the view that religiosity is a positive and supportive factor in studying, and students in church-run schools achieve better. They also prove that through the community’s system of values and norms these schools supply their students with social capital that can exert a positive effect on disadvantaged students as well (Coleman et al. 1982; Dronkers and Róbert 2004; Dronkers and Avram 2015; Corten and Dronkers 2006; Standfest et al. 2005; Pusztai and Bacskai 2015). However, other research shows that students do not achieve better in church-run schools (Mancebón and Muñiz 2008; Mancebón et al. 2012), and their apparent advantage is only due to the schools’ selectivity (Füller 2010; Weiß and Preuschoff 2004, 2006; Weiß 2011, 2012). Moreover, a fundamentally religious value system is likely to foster an explicitly anti-academic attitude (Darnell and Sherkat 1997).

2. Method

Church-run school teachers are in a special position, because they do not teach religious subjects, but must conform to the norms of the sustaining church. These norms are laid down in the credo of schools, but how they are realized in classroom work is not tightly regulated. Because of this, it is an interesting question which educational values they consider to be important. Are there differences between teachers in Catholic and Protestant schools, as we have seen that the values of the denomination may be different, or will the values of the schools be highly similar along the line of universal Christian values? Does it matter if the maintaining denomination is Protestant or Catholic, or is it more important to which denomination the teacher belongs? We formulated the research hypotheses along these research questions:

2.1. Hypothesis

Our hypothesis is that teachers’ value systems differ in Catholic and Protestant schools. While Catholic schools embrace traditional Christian values such as religious faith, protection of the created world, and community values, preferences in Protestant schools include traditional Protestant values such as love of work and frugality.

2.2. Method

During our research “Teachers in church-run educational institutions” (TCREI) we examined teachers of Catholic and Protestant schools. The overall purpose of the project was to get a picture of teachers’ professional commitment, career paths and educational culture in denominational schools. One set of questions centered around professional careers and educational activities, and another around teachers’ special needs and plans related to their preparation for educating in a religious spirit. The third set of questions aimed to obtain information about teachers’ attitudes to the school provider’s mission and about the pedagogical work of the school. This paper will focus on the connection between religious capital and educational principles. We will look at the educational values of both the individual teachers and the teaching staff as a whole. Our earlier research (Pusztai 2020) proved that one of the keys to the success of church-run schools is the commonly shared system of educational goals. However, at that time we did not make a distinction between Catholic and Protestant schools but dealt with church-run institutions in general, distinguishing them from state-run institutions. Now we set out to explore the differences between Catholic and Protestant schools.

Participants: We conducted our survey of Catholic schools in 2015. Our questionnaires were filled out by 806 teachers working in 54 schools run by 7 monastic orders. We sent the school heads the appropriate number of questionnaires to be distributed to the teachers. The completed questionnaires were returned to the heads in closed envelopes to ensure anonymity.

The survey of Protestant (Reformed) schools took place online between June and September 2017. We sent the questionnaires to 177 schools run by Reformed organizations, and after sending several reminders we finally received back 328 questionnaires.

Measures: We measured the religiosity of teachers in three different areas: First we asked for self-classification on a five-point scale1 (Davie 2012; Pusztai and Demeter-Karászi 2019). Second, we examined the inner religiosity with the frequency of prayer, and third, we asked how often they attend religious community events (worship, small group occasions, etc.). We ask them about their Christian and non-Christian religious tenets on a five-point scales. We have examined thirty educational values according to Kohn’s test (Kohn 1963).2

Analysis: In the analysis, we compared the means of the responses of the groups of teachers. In the third table we used one-way analysis of variance.

3. Results

Since religious capital, in line with Stark and Finke’s (2000) statement, comprises the acquisition of rites, knowledge, and the handling of special relationships, it can be accumulated during one’s course of life as a religious person. If one’s religious faith is observed individually rather than in a community, it is called spiritual capital. These resources are undoubtedly instrumental in how teachers in Protestant and Catholic institutions of education define their roles, act as role models to children, provide patterns of behavior, and handle stressful conflicts that arise during their work.

Our earlier intersectoral comparison reveals that the religiosity of teachers in the state sector does not differ from the religiosity of the entire population. In a survey we conducted in the state sector in 2014 (Pusztai and Morvai 2015), apart from the fact that one tenth of our respondents refused to answer, almost two thirds claimed to be religious in a way (most often in their own way). In contrast, in our present survey, teachers at Catholic schools appeared much more religious, with two thirds of them claiming to observe the rules of the church, one fifth claiming to be religious in their own way, and only 5% refusing to reveal their position. Looking at different denominational school providers, we were further convinced that teachers’ religious and spiritual resources are outstanding in these institutions. As for Protestant schools, the proportion of teachers who refused to answer was lower; two thirds claimed to observe the rules of the church and 31% claimed to be religious in their own way, so altogether the proportion of teachers who were somehow religious was lower as in schools run by monastic orders. It is to be noted, however, that the above dual self-classification is relative as individuals evaluate their religious faith in the light of their social environment and their own knowledge of religion and the church. Therefore, there might be considerable transition between the two categories (

Table 1. Intersectoral comparison of the religiosity of teachers.

Religious Self-Classification	Catholic Institutions	Protestant Institutions
Observes the rules of the church	76.1%	65.2%
Religious in their own way	20.0%	30.8%
Uncertain	0.8%	0.7%
Not religious	1.2%	1.1%
Refused to answer	1.9%	2.2%
N=	806	328

Sources: TCREI.

). This ratio is high. For example, in England and Scotland, almost half of the RE teachers have no religion (Nixon et al. 2021).

While all the Catholic schools of our sample have been run by monastic orders for several years, the Protestant institutions are rather diverse in this respect. Some of them have been run by the church for over five years (hence referred to as “old” schools in this paper), while some of them have been taken over recently (hence referred to as “new” schools). The two groups are equally represented among our respondents (52.2–47.8%, respectively), yet there is wide variance in their religious self-classification. While nearly 75% of teachers in old Protestant schools claim to observe the rules of the church, the corresponding figure is less than 60% in new ones. The difference exists in the “religious in their own way” category as well with less than one fourth of the teachers in old Protestant schools and over one third in new ones (

Table 2. Religious self-classification of teachers in old Protestant institutions and ones taken over recently.

Religious Self-Classification	Old	New
Observes the rules of the church	74.4%	57.6%
Religious in their own way	23.8%	36.7%
Uncertain	0.6%	0.6%
Not religious	-	1.9%
Refused to answer	1.3%	3.2%
N=	160	158

Sources: TCREI (only Protestant subsample).

).

Regarding the denominational distribution of the entire Hungarian population, census data in 2011 show that the majority is Catholic (67.2%), and Protestants are in a minority. (The proportion of all Protestant denominations is 27.2%, out of which 20.9% are Reformed and 6.1% are Lutheran in the Hungarian population.) Among teachers at Catholic schools, the denominational dominance is markedly strong as 84.6% of our respondents are Catholic. In Protestant schools, 74.7% of our respondents belong to the Reformed church, 15% are Catholic, and the number of those without any religious affiliation is insignificant. However, there is a difference between old and new Protestant schools. Most of the teachers in the old schools are Protestant (81%), whereas in the new ones only 60% are. It has also been confirmed that the proportion of religious people is higher among teachers and students (Pusztai and Fónai 2012).

In Protestant schools, four fifths of our respondents are regular churchgoers: 39.1% go to church a few times a month, 34.5% weekly and 6% more than once a week. Allowing for special denominational characteristics, this is roughly equivalent to the religious observance of teachers in Catholic schools, and it is well above the average of the Hungarian population. The teachers at old Protestant schools seem to be more active with most of them going to church every week, while in the new schools the majority are monthly churchgoers. Our measurement of personal religious practice in this survey was the frequency of personal prayer. Most of the teachers in Catholic schools pray daily (27.8%) or even more than once a day (52%). The corresponding figures are somewhat lower, 31.5% and 45%, respectively, in Protestant schools. Of those who pray daily, 58% are from old Protestant schools, and it is generally true that the intensity of personal religious practice is higher in those institutions.

Only one fifth of our full sample claim to attend a congregation or a parish where nobody else from their teaching staff attends. In contrast, almost every other teacher has a colleague who attends the same Bible or prayer group. Religious relationship networks are (or could be) among the most important sector-specific resources of social capital for teachers because they give guidance in value orientation and also serve as information channels. Over four fifths of our respondents expressed their wish for the opportunity to attend Bible classes or other religious groups at their workplaces to gain new religious knowledge and experiences. In these two respects, there are no differences between the teachers of old and new Protestant schools.

We also asked our respondents about their faith in 16 Christian and non-Christian religious tenets. The degree of faith was measured on a five-grade scale. Our respondents believe, to a considerable extent or firmly (grades 4 or 5), in the following five elements of faith: the existence of God, the Holy Trinity, heaven, resurrection, and life after death. They definitely reject (grades 1 or 2) reincarnation, UFOs, horoscopes, Kabbalah, talismans, and magic.

Table 3. Religious self-classification of teachers in Catholic, old Protestant institutions and ones taken over recently.

Christian and Non-Christian Religious Tenets	Catholic Institutions	Old Protestant Institutions	New Protestant Institutions	F	ANOVA Test
God	4.62	4.87	4.66	9.046	**
Resurrection	4.26	4.64	4.05	20.41	***
Heaven	4.45	4.60	4.25	8.62	**
Devil	3.84	3.43	3.13	2.41	ns
Hell	3.88	3.40	3.12	2.01	ns
Saints	4.31	3.03	3.66	12.16	***
Holy Trinity	4.43	4.65	4.34	7.0	**
Immaculate Conception	4.07	4.24	3.61	13.84	***
Miracles	3.70	3.60	3.41	1.23	ns
Life after death	4.25	4.27	4.01	1.72	ns
Telepathy	2.40	2.22	2.4	1.3	ns
UFOs	2.06	1.57	1.54	0.35	ns
Horoscopes	1.93	1.26	1.6	14.23	***
Kabbalah/Talismans	1.68	1.19	1.48	10.9	**
Reincarnation	1.68	1.60	1.86	3.88	*
Magic	1.60	1.15	1.41	9.6	**

Sources: TCREI.

below shows the averages of our two sample groups, reflecting our respondents’ general views on these tenets and highlighting significant differences.

The first items of the table constitute the basic tenets of Christianity. Still, there are some differences between the two denominations and school types even in the acceptance of these tenets. The acceptance of most Christian tenets is the highest in old Protestant schools. The only exception is the idea of saints, which is more accepted by teachers in Catholic and in new Protestant institutions. As we have pointed out, the proportion of Catholic teachers is higher in new Protestant Schools than in old ones. The acceptance of non-Christian tenets is higher in new Protestant schools, but it is not extremely high in any of the school types. It is interesting to note that faith in positive things is stronger; for example, faith in heaven is remarkably stronger than in hell in each school type.

4. The Effect of Religiosity on Educational Values

In our questionnaires, we listed 30 qualities (educational values) to ask the teachers how important they found their cultivation in their students. The ranking of the qualities can reveal the teachers’ educational value preferences. Both denominations ranked reliability, honesty, and responsibility the highest. In general, teachers gave extremely similar answers in both school types. The teachers at Protestant schools consistently ranked every quality higher. The deviance from the group average was not significantly different for the Protestant and Catholic groups. One set of qualities included in the questionnaire was mainly related to community values, and the other was centered around the development of the individual.

We wanted to find out what differences can be detected between the two denominations. Each of the following three diagrams contain only ten out of the thirty educational values, namely the ones that divided the two groups of respondents the most. The charts do not show educational values between which there were no significant differences. It is clearly noticeable that the two lines constructed from the scores form highly similar shapes with the exception of frugality and efficient assertion of one’s interests. Both are more typically Protestant values with higher grades from teachers at Protestant schools than from teachers at Catholic schools (see Figure 1). Strong national identity is part of both the Protestant and Catholic educational value system. Religiosity and a sense of belonging are community identities that oppose individuality and therefore reinforce each other (Bechert 2021; Hynson 2021).

As we pointed out in the introduction of this paper, most—but not all—of the teachers in denominational schools belong to the denomination that operates the school. Therefore, we examined how the differences in value preferences changed when we looked at the denominational affiliation of the teachers as opposed to the affiliation of the school. We did not find any significant differences. The Figure 2 also shows that Protestant teachers consistently gave higher grades, but the two shapes are highly similar again, this time with the exception of good leadership skills. It was ranked almost an entire grade higher by Protestant teachers than their Catholic colleagues.

To sum up, our research reveals that denominational affiliation, except for a few cases, is not a great divide. There are no striking differences either between teachers of Catholic and Protestant schools or between Catholic and Protestant teachers. The question thus arises whether they have any differences in their educational value preferences at all. Our analysis has led us to the conclusion that the significant differences are not between denominations but between religious and non-religious groups. This is what Figure 3 represents, displaying 10 values, the importance of which was the least agreed about by the two groups. The diagram shows that non-religious teachers consistently ranked individualistic educational values higher than religious teachers, who gave their preference to community values and, naturally, religious faith.

5. Conclusions

The examination of our hypothesis revealed that the real gap between teachers does not lie in the denominational affiliations of school providers or individual teachers, but in the difference between religious and non-religious teachers. Earlier in this paper we pointed out that the presence of non-religious teachers in church-run schools is rather low, which means that most of their staff hold similar views on educational values, enabling schools to foster a unified value system. One of our new findings is that denominations differ considerably in their rites and principles of faith but not in their basic values, which makes the choice easier for parents who cannot enroll their children in a school run by their own denomination. Once the school is run by the church, the question of denomination does not make a big difference.