Professional cooperation, disadvantage compensation in schools, professional well-being: the results of a Hungarian-Croatian comparative study

Abstract

This final publication reports on the results of research carried out under the EFOP project 5.2.2-17 “Transnational Cooperation”. The aim of the research is to find out the opinion of professionals providing social and educational (professional) services in three areas: school disadvantage compensation, professional cooperation and professional working conditions. Among the target groups concerned, not of the three topics have been researched extensively, thus their study can be considered of paramount importance. The research is of exploratory nature and based on a survey. Data collection took place in Hungary in Baranya County and in Croatia in Osijek-Baranja County (Osječko-baranjska županija), mainly among social and special education professionals. The restricted database of the Hungarian survey conducted in 2019 contains the data of 261 professionals, while the Croatian survey of 2020 contains the data of 100 respondents. In the first part of the volume, we report on the main results of the research. Within this, we present the broader context of the survey, outlining some features of the Hungarian and Croatian social care systems. After that, we present the details of the survey and the characteristics of the interviewed professionals in three major topics - professional cooperation, school disadvantages and their compensation, and the conditions of professional work. In the second part of the volume, each topic of the survey is explained in detail and in more depth. In the first two studies, we present the views of professionals on collaboration and their experience in this field. The first analysis focuses on the importance, frequency and effectiveness of cooperation - for each level of the hierarchy within the profession and regarding some external professional actors. The second analysis examines the experience gained during the cooperation with other professions, examining the professionals' perceptions of the nature and circumstances of the cooperation, the medium where it took place, and the facilitating and inhibiting factors. The next two analyses focus on school disadvantages. On the one hand, we explore the typical reasons for the development of school disadvantages, based on the opinion of professionals providing social and educational services. On the other hand, we explore the means whereby, according to the perception of the professionals, the developed disadvantages can be managed and compensated. The third topic discussed in the volume covers the conditions of professional work. One analysis on the topic provides an idea of the emotional-physical-mental strain of professionals. The other study examines the interactions of factors making professional work more difficult by examining different aspects of working conditions. 6 The analyses - mainly due to the higher number of items - focus primarily on the Hungarian data, however, where only methodologically possible, the Hungarian results are reported in comparison with the Croatian data. The results and conclusions presented are valid for the respondents, and they can be generalized to a limited extent to the basic population. The analytical studies present the results in a unified structure – a thematic introduction, analysis, summary and recommendations. At the end of the studies, the policy-relevant recommendations formulated based on the Hungarian results can be applied in Hungary.