School of Education

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Rita Hordósy

Assistant Professor in Education, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Biography

Rita Hordósy joined the University of Nottingham in 2019 as a Nottingham Research Fellow, and became an Assistant Professor in Education in 2023. Her research interests revolve around social justice issues in education and post-compulsory education trajectories, with her current work focusing on the research / teaching nexus compared across European universities.

Prior to arriving at Nottingham she was a lecturer at the University of Manchester, where she led on a project investigating further education college students' future career plans. Her longitudinal research at the University of Sheffield explored the lived experiences of undergraduate students from higher and lower socio-economic backgrounds in the context of the post-2012 tuition fee regime. This four year study looked at the importance of financial support, the role of extracurricular activities, career planning and change, as well as academic transitions more broadly.

Rita conducted her doctoral research in education at the University of Birmingham, analysing and comparing national information systems across Europe that were gathering information on school leavers' and graduates' path after compulsory education. Graduating with an MA in Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, she worked on several research projects dealing with vocational education at the Hungarian Institute for Educational Research & Development.

Teaching Summary

My core teaching interest is in social science research methods, especially regarding research-based teaching in education. I currently teach the following unit on the MA Education course: EDUC4308… read more

Research Summary

Nottingham Research Fellowship, 2019 - 2024: Why teach research and research teaching? - Comparative view of the tensions between research and teaching in Europe's universities

Funder: Nottingham Research Fellowship, University of Nottingham

My fellowship research aims to compare and contrast the research / teaching nexus in selected case-study countries within the European Economic Area, namely Hungary, England and Norway. There are a number of major strands to this project:

  • Why sociology? What do sociologists do? - This strand explores how sociology undergraduate and postgraduate students understand and discuss their disciplinary choice, as well as possible sociological futures in the three national contexts of Norway, England and Hungary. Further, it provides an overview of enrollment patterns in the case-study countries based on administrative data.
  • What is sociological research? - This strand a) analyses curriculum documents to pinpoint how 'research' appears in these degrees; and b) illuminates how students at different stages of their studies see the process of sociological inquiry (Hordósy & Norris, 2022).
  • Who publishes sociological research? - This strand looks at leading international sociology journals regarding the interplay of the centre-periphery relations as observed within their aims, editorial boards and author networks. As such, it explores the geographies of knowledge in the context of sociology as a discipline (Brown, Vega Castillo & Hordósy, Forthcoming)
  • Careers in academia - This strand looks at fractured and precarious careers in academia using administrative data as well as interviews (Hordósy & McLean, 2022).

SRHE Research Award, 2024: Gatekeepers of knowledge production on higher education: journal editorial board networks and working practices (Jointly with Dr Martin Myers, Anto Castillo-Vega and Elizabeth Brown)

Funder: Society for Research into Higher Education Research Awards (£ 9962.63)

This project explores how academic knowledge about higher education is shaped and sanctioned by the editorial boards of higher education journals. To do so, it will provide an analysis of editorial board practices in relation to the published aims and objectives of higher education journals. In particular the research will identify the range of different approaches adopted when recruiting new editorial board members; the extent to which editorial boards appear to be exclusive or open networks of scholars; and, the degree to which editorial boards overlap or interlock. The research will explore the likely extent that some scholarship about higher education is effectively excluded from publication for factors such as its geographical origination or authorship outside of known networks. By doing so the research will provide evidence of the inclusivity or exclusivity of knowledge production about higher education.

Selected Publications

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss a potential doctoral research project in the following broad areas:

Post-compulsory and higher education; International comparative education; Social inequalities in education; Transitions to, through and beyond universities; Research and teaching nexus

My core teaching interest is in social science research methods, especially regarding research-based teaching in education. I currently teach the following unit on the MA Education course: EDUC4308 Understanding and Planning Educational Research

Past Research

I am a sociologist with a deep interest in, and passion for international and comparative educational research. My past research involved broader topics such as progression from vocational schooling, school segregation, local policy-making, and higher education experiences of students. I conducted research in a number of different settings, ranging from multigrade schools in small villages, vocational schools and universities in cities, drawing on a wide range of research designs and methods.

Recently I was the principal investigator for a Greater Manchester Higher funded project, looking at the experiences of further education college students with regards to their career planning, and contrasting their accounts with those of widening participation practitioners, further education college teachers, and careers guidance professionals.

Between 2013 and 2018 I lead on a longitudinal tracking project at the University of Sheffield, following a cohort of undergraduates through their university years, to gain in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of their financial, academic and social transitions. One strand of this work explored the changing student experiences of the research and teaching nexus.

School of Education

University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB

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