125 Years of Special Education Teacher Training in Hungary

In Hungary, the first institutions for special education were established in the 1800s, which soon led to the launch of specialized teacher training programs. Training courses began to appear, each preparing educators for the teaching tasks of a specific type of special education institution – then referred to as "philanthropic." These were usually organized and operated by the first-established mother institutions in their respective special fields, building their training programs on prior pedagogical qualifications – either as teachers, educators, or sometimes clergymen.

A turning point came in 1899 when Dr. Sándor Náray-Szabó, a physician and state secretary, established the Special Education Department within the Ministry of Religion and Public Education to centralize education for children with disabilities. He initiated the unification of specialized teacher training programs. As a result, the Teacher Training Institute for Special Education was established in Vác in 1900 – the predecessor of the current ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education.

It was a globally significant innovation in Hungarian higher education when a unified, college-level education program was established for all branches of special education – serving professionals working with the deaf, blind, speech-impaired, and intellectually disabled – under one institution. This development stemmed from the experience gained at the Vác Institute for the Deaf-Mute, which had been operating since 1802:

effective development also requires broader knowledge.

To this day, this principle holds true, and ELTE’s training follows this: special education professionals need more than deep knowledge in one type of disability; they require broad, extended, and advanced-level training.

The institution's fundamental task is to establish, expand, and transmit knowledge about both people with and without disabilities. Special education at Bárczi has always been taught and practiced from a multidisciplinary and evidence-based perspective, driven by exemplary humanity and with humaneness.

During World War II, the institution expressed this humaneness in a special way. Then-director Gusztáv Bárczi, during the Holocaust era, admitted 70 young people – 69 of them Jewish – into the Csalogány Street and Alkotás Street institutions for the intellectually disabled, which operated under the umbrella of the faculty, labeling them as intellectually disabled. Among them was Lilla Ecséri, who later wrote memoirs of her survival. For his life-saving actions, Bárczi posthumously received the Yad Vashem Award in 2017.

The profession requires diverse and advanced knowledge, which the institution's leaders and staff have ensured and exemplified from the beginning, earning recognition from the international professional community. The training remains grounded in intensive research,

often presenting internationally significant results.

Pál Ranschburg (1870–1945), a distinguished psychiatrist and neurologist, was the founder of experimental psychology and special education psychology in Hungary. In his pioneering laboratory, he discovered homogeneous inhibition (the so-called Ranschburg phenomenon). His collaborator, and later head of his own laboratory, was Lipót Szondi (1893–1986), internationally known for his development of fate analysis and the Szondi test. Gusztáv Bárczi (1890–1964), who also held a medical degree, developed the international practice of teaching deaf and hard-of-hearing children and, in 1934, described the condition of cortical deafness. His hearing education method to treat the condition made his name known worldwide.

The most essential difference between the former and current state of Hungarian special education science is that at the turn of the century, it was established as an explanatory science rooted in the natural sciences. Today, it is becoming a

social science-oriented field focused on understanding

with anthropological sensitivity.

Bárczi is perhaps the only faculty in the world where special education and disability studies coexist and mutually influence each other in both the development and dissemination of knowledge. As current dean Gabriella Papp states, the faculty adheres to the principle of "Nothing about us without us!" – involving participatory educators in the training process: students are taught not just about people with disabilities, but with them, co-shaping their understanding.

One of the faculty’s outstanding contemporary innovations is the "Teaching Together!"  participatory higher education methodology, which has been added to ELTE’s official know-how list. Its component, the Disability Awareness Training (DAT), is a participatory sensitization program aimed at increasing workplace openness toward employees with disabilities. In the Kenyan school development project, Bárczi staff conduct screenings of young children across four disability-specific areas, identify necessary medical interventions, introduce inclusive teaching methods to local educators, provide parental counseling, and run developmental programs for the children.

From the outset,

the institution's staff has been involved in active professional policy work

aimed at improving the quality of life and social status of people with disabilities. Today, they maintain regular consultation and representation with professional and civil organizations in the fields of special education, disability, healthcare, and social services, supporting the work of decision-making bodies that affect the lives of people with disabilities.