Head of research, Director of the Institute, Head of the Doctoral School, University Professor
Prof. Dr. Gabriella Pusztai is a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, head of the Doctoral School of Human Sciences of the University of Debrecen and the Higher Education Research and Development Center of the University of Debrecen, director of the Institute of Education and Cultural Sciences. His main areas of research are the cultural and social capital sources behind student and school success, the involvement of churches in public and higher education, and the school careers of those belonging to religious and national minorities. In his higher education research, he focused on examining the relationships between student achievement and failure, as well as the problem of measuring and comparing institutional added value. In 2007, he received the Bolyai plaque of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in 2014 he received the National Excellence Award, and in 2019 he was awarded the Master Teacher Gold Award. One of the most important of his academic achievements, which led to the MTA doctorate, was his pioneering application of the social capital theory, which explains the successful academic careers of successful students from low-status families, in Hungarian and Central and Eastern European educational research. Joyce Epstein's concept of the impact of parents' involvement in schools grew out of this theory, on which the work of the MTA-DE-Families and Teachers Cooperation Research Group is based.
Pillar leader, Senior Researcher
Katinka Bacskai is a history-sociology teacher and sociologist. I am primarily involved in public education research, my research areas are the effectiveness of teachers teaching disadvantaged students, the education of students who require special attention and cross-sector comparisons. I gained experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methodology, I also deal with secondary analysis of OKM and OECD databases. I obtained my doctorate in 2014, the title of my dissertation is: What does the teacher achieve (achieve) if he is Central European?: Teachers teaching low-status students in two Central European countries. In the framework of the János Bolyai Research Scholarship, I examine the methodology of teachers teaching students with learning difficulties and their relationship with parents.
Pillar leader, Senior Researcher
I am a sociologist with the Ferenc Gazsó Memorial Prize, a doctor of educational sciences. The focus of my research is resilience. I examine students who, despite their social disadvantages, entered higher education with outstanding input performance. I call them resilience pledges. The sign of promise is a valid distinction in the context of higher education and indicates that successful admission is only a promise and not a guarantee that we can talk about resilient life paths during the student years as well. Another focus of my research is higher education talent management and its social openness. I gained research experience in many areas of the sociology of education and education in the framework of 33 domestic and international research projects affecting public and higher education: e.g. graduate career tracking, shadow education, social cohesion, teacher training, teacher in-service training, special educational needs, disadvantage, catch-up, talent management, added value, learning regions, resilience. I am currently an assistant professor at the University of Debrecen. Among other things, I worked as a research associate at the Educational Research and Development Institute, the Higher Education Research and Development Center of the University of Debrecen (CHERD-Hungary) and other research centers.
Research Coordinator, Research group member
Zsófia Kocsis is a teaching assistant at the BTK Institute of Education and Cultural Sciences of the University of Debrecen and a PhD student at the Doctoral School of Human Sciences. I completed my studies at the teaching department of the University of Nyíregyházi and then at the master's degree in education at the University of Debrecen. I already carried out minor research during my bachelor's degree, however, during my master's degree in education, I gained knowledge that helped me learn how to conduct quality research. In 2014, within the framework of the New National Excellence Competition, I started to deal with the issue of student employment, the results were published in XXXIII. I presented it at the National Scientific Student Conference, which was awarded first place. In addition to the trends in student employment, I examine the impact of work on academic performance based on various background variables. As a PhD student, in 2018 and 2019 he received a scholarship from the New National Excellence Program. Furthermore, in 2020 I won the SZENT-GYORGYI YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD, and thus the support of The New York Hungarian Scientific Society.