Social Aspects of Multilingual and Multicultural Education in a Hungarian Model
Social Aspects of Multilingual and Multicultural Education in a Hungarian Model

Summary/Abstract: In our globalised world there are more and more examples of multilingual and multicultural schools where a more complex social context is present than in a monocultural institution. Therefore, the collaboration of different partners is an organic part of education and plays an important role in these pedagogical settings. This paper gives an account of research into multilingualism and multiculturalism in a kindergarten attended by children from foreign families working at a local air base. The highly interdisciplinary research aims to explore the main question, i.e. how can kindergarten teachers, children, parents and educational specialists form the common linguistic, cultural and pedagogical basis in this very complex setting? The article outlines the background to the study and, with the help of the research methods applied, it focuses on the challenges of the situation and the cooperation of the actors. The findings shed light on linguistic-pedagogical questions, such as how languages relate to each other, how different cultural identities are manifested under institutional circumstances, what the actors’ attitude is to early childhood multilingual-multicultural education, and how a dialogue can result in fruitful social and educational cooperation.

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