Forray R., Katalin

education sociologist

Ms. Forray was born in Mezőtúr in 1942. She studied at the University of Szeged; her doctoral subject being the social effects of the shutdown of small schools for children living on detached farms. In 1983 she defended her candidate's essay on the interconnections between the geographical accessibility of secondary schools, homogeneous or heterogeneous social composition, and customs of education. Since the mid 1980s, her social-ecological and regional research covers the approach adopted by Roma children and families to schooling. She has co-authored several books and essays with her husband, András Hegedűs T., on socialisation within the family and on intercultural education. She qualified as a lecturer at the University of Debrecen in 1998, and became a Doctor at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2003. Amongst her many workplaces, the Institute of Educational Research offered her professional security. She still conducts scientific research for its legal successor, the Higher Education Research Institute. She has been a professor of the University of Sciences in Pécs since 1998; she organises and heads the Roma Studies Department which offers courses in Roma Studies and a corresponding teacher's degree. Under the aegis of the Institute of the Science of Education of the University of Pécs, Roma Studies became an integral part of teachers' training as well.

Together or Separately? Gypsies, the Roma, Hungarians, and the School