Myth, rhetoric, and ideology in Eastern European education: schools and citizenship in Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

This article proposes a reading of citizenship and education as ideological phenomena, rhetorical outcomes, and mythological effects. A long historical overview helps to understand the early political myths and ideologies, which influenced the idea of a national school in Eastern Europe. Moreover, the historical perspective on political ideologies highlights their recurrent renewal through the socialist era into the post-socialist transformation. The educational arena can also be analyzed through the lens of myths and ideologies. In fact, the ideological landscape of politics and education in Eastern Europe may be viewed as a typical response to modernization. I will argue that the renewal of early political ideologies and the socio-political profile of Eastern European societies are intertwined with educational phenomena, although not deterministically but paradoxically. In fact, it is possible to observe how education has persistently reinforced social stratification, while educational myths, rhetoric, and ideologies maintained the contrary.