The relationship between school and students in a cross-sector comparison. Focus on the Kolping secondary schools.

Abstract

Kolping pedagogy – rooting in religion, family, profession and community building - aims for developing students' personality. The subject of our study is a section of the Hungarian secondary school system which is also a part of a world-wide uniform pedagogy. According to some of the theories about the relationship between religiosity and social mobility, religiosity can support the mobility of low SES students. Kolping schools want to help the mobility of underprivileged young people with a four-pillar pedagogy (1. Be a good father/mother, 2. Be a good Christian, 3. Be a good professional, 4. Be a good part of the community). Kolping schools are considered to be „the schools of the last after the last chance” which means that they contribute reducing drop-out rates (half of the Hungarian average). Our research is built up on qualitative and quantitative studies. The results show that Kolping students are extremely different from the student of other sectors: not only according to their families and social-financial-cultural background but to their abilities and future plans.