Professionalism vs. Ideologization in the Hungarian Candidate Dissertations in Educational Science in the 1970s

After World War II, the Soviet model was introduced in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, including Hungary, not only in the political, economic, and social spheres, but also in the field of science, and within it, in the system of qualification. The system introduced – which remained in place until 1993 – was aimed at creating a new intellectual class, so candidates had to meet political as well as professional requirements. In a pilot study on the process of knowledge construction in the next generation of scientists, we analyzed reviewers’ opinions on doctoral dissertations in the 1970s. The theoretical framework was provided by Stichweh and Becker’s notion of discipline and Bourdieu’s field theory on the functioning of scientific disciplines. Qualitative content analysis was used to process 20 reviews. Although the candidates had to meet both professional and political criteria, the referees put more emphasis on professionalism. The analyzed reviewers’ opinions of the show, that those within the scientific field already had more flexibility than those wishing to enter it, but that this meant only relative research freedom.