Perceived Discrimination and Self-assessment of Teachers in Slovak Ethnic Schools in Hungary

Education in one’s own mother tongue is one of the key areas for maintaining and developing one's own language and ethnic identity of the Slovak minority in Hungary. The aim of the paper is to find out the degree of perceived discrimination of teachers in respect of their work in an ethnic school and the consequent assessment of the teachers' relationships not only from the point of view of themselves, but also from the point of view of their social environment. The paper is based on data from a questionnaire survey conducted in Slovak ethnic schools in Hungary in 2019 on a sample of 139 ethnic school teachers. In terms of perceptions of discrimination, it can be stated that approximately one-third of the teachers at Slovak ethnic schools have experienced varying degrees of discrimination. The distribution of the results also shows that teachers face discrimination in both urban and rural areas and that discrimination against teachers increases with age. In the context of social comparison, we observed highly positive evaluations of teachers. Slightly more positive evaluations were observed for self-evaluation. The reflected form of teachers’ relations reflects both the broader historical and social context, the current situation in the Slovak ethnic education system and the individual-specific characteristics of the respondents.