Icelandic Schools Research Articles

Competing identities in diverse classrooms: mapping social and academic hierarchies in perceived inclusive utopias

ABSTRACT The concept of inclusion, which emphasises access to education and well-being for all students, is fundamental to Icelandic schools, but its aims and applications continue to be impacted by various social and academic barriers experienced by an increasing diversity of students. This article is an ethnographic study focusing on power relations in a seemingly inclusive classroom and school in the capital city of Reykjavík. The analysis draws on Bourdieu’s concept of social space to examine the classroom as a network of intersecting social positions. Data consists of participant observations, teacher interviews, and sociograms derived from student questionnaires. Findings suggest that the hierarchies found within the framework of inclusion are affected not only by social and academic relationships among students, such as those based on gender, ethnicity, class, and language or academic ability, but also by teacher and student perspectives on normative cultural practices that are intertwined with inclusive practices.

Stjórnun og fagleg forysta í grunnskólum

Samfara aukinni valddreifingu í íslensku skólastarfi hefur umfang starfs skólastjóra grunnskóla aukist verulega. Í skólastjórn felst bæði stjórnun og fagleg forysta en skólastjóra er fengið það hlutverk samkvæmt lögum að móta stjórnskipan síns skóla og skipta verkum á milli kennara og stjórnenda. Sjónir fræðimanna hafa í vaxandi mæli beinst að hlut skólastjóra í að bæta námsárangur en sýnt hefur verið fram á að skýr tengsl eru á milli faglegrar forystu skólastjóra og árangurs nemenda. Með kjarasamningum 2001 var samið um störf aðstoðarskólastjóra og deildarstjóra í þeim tilgangi að efla kennslufræðilega forystu í grunnskólunum og fjölgaði stjórnendunum talsvert fram til ársins 2008. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar var að kanna hverjar væru starfsaðstæður og bakgrunnur skólastjóra og hvaða viðfangsefni hann kysi sjálfur að axla í stjórnkerfi skólans. Gagna var aflað með rafrænni spurningakönnun sem send var öllum stjórnendum í grunnskólum með meira en 100 nemendur. Niðurstöður sýna að skólastjórar grunnskóla hafa umtalsverða starfsreynslu og mikill meirihluti þeirra hefur lokið framhaldsnámi í stjórnun. Þrátt fyrir viðleitni til að binda skólana saman sem faglegar stofnanir virðast þeir enn vera talsvert laustengdir. Tilhögun stjórnkerfis skólanna er óljós og hefur í för með sér ákveðin einkenni óreiðu fremur en fagveldis. Hlutverk aðstoðarskólastjóra og deildarstjóra eru óljóst skilgreind en algengast er að skólastjóri gegni sjálfur hlutverkum stjórnenda. Hinum mikilvægu faglegu forystuhlutverkum er skipt með óljósum hætti milli stjórnenda og oftar en ekki er vísað til ábyrgðar stjórnendateymis. Benda niðurstöður til þess að áform kjarasamnings árið 2001 um að efla kennslufræðilega forystu í grunnskólum hafi ekki gengið eftir.

The working conditions of Icelandic upper secondary school teachers during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic: A gender inequality against all odds

AbstractIn Iceland, and around the world, the working environment in upper secondary schools changed dramatically with the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic. In our research, we aimed to illuminate the ever‐changing working conditions of teachers in Icelandic upper secondary schools during the first year of the pandemic, especially in the context of gender and family composition. Data came from interviews with 12 teachers and surveys administered to upper secondary school teachers in 33 out of 37 upper‐secondary schools in Iceland with participation from approximately one‐third of the teacher population. The results show that teachers felt increasingly stressed throughout the pandemic and that gender played a significant role. Women, who often also served as primary caregivers at home, found it more strenuous to fulfil their teaching duties than men. The results raise important questions about teachers' working conditions and gender's role therein, especially in a country considered an emblem of success when it comes to gender equality.

‘We can do much more and better’: understanding gatekeepers’ perspectives on students’ linguistic human rights

As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been incorporated into domestic policy, Iceland has a legal obligation to respond to children’s linguistic human rights in schools. Increasing language diversity is addressed in both policy and practice, informed by the inclusive education principles that underpin the ideology of the Icelandic school system. A thematic analysis of the perspectives of four school principals and four directors of school support services, working in four different municipalities, reveals tensions between stakeholders’ understandings of children’s rights, school responses to diverse languages, and state accountability towards children’s linguistic human rights. Application of Tomaševski’s 4As framework (availability, accessibility, acceptability, adaptability) suggests the need for increased human rights education and funding for local rights-based initiatives and monitoring. The study contributes to policy and practice aimed at addressing language diversity as a human rights concern.

Cultivating virtue literacy in visual arts classes: Reflection on a fine-arts intervention aimed at moral education in a lower-secondary school in Iceland

ABSTRACT In this paper, I discuss the results of focus-group interviews with teachers and pupils in Iceland who participated in an intervention in visual arts classes aimed at cultivating virtue literacy, critical thinking, and moral deliberation through pupils’ creativity and discussions regarding moral topics. Pupils and teachers generally welcomed the ethical approach of the project, but thematic analysis revealed challenges to implementing moral education in a traditional school setting. The results suggest that although the value of the arts for moral reflection and deliberation is widely recognised, interventions for moral education need to consider the existing national educational framework, general educational aims, local school culture and the diverse characteristics of pupils and teachers.

Teaching philosophy in compulsory education: 
 A dive into teachers’ experiences and effects

This paper presents findings from qualitative research on teachers’ experiences of practising philosophy in Icelandic schools and its effects on their work and students. The research question is: What are the teachers’ experiences of teaching philosophy in compulsory education, and how do these experiences shape their practices and affect their students? Nine philosophy teachers from South-West Iceland were interviewed from January to June 2021. Findings show both opportunities and challenges of practising philosophy with students. Opportunities consist of students’ training in democratic living, reflective thinking, and a better understanding of various subject matters if the tools of philosophy are used. For teachers, the main challenge of doing philosophy is the uncertainty in the classroom when teaching through dialogue.

Teenagers’ Opinions on Parental Involvement in Compulsory Schools in Iceland

Students’ voices in research on parental involvement in schools are rather weak since many studies report only on opinions of parents and school personnel. This paper draws on findings from a study in 14 compulsory schools and uses data from questionnaires from students in 7th to 10th grade (n=1821). The issue, students’ wishes for parents’ participation, is approached from a systemic perspective; Bronfenbrenner´s ecological systems theory, Epstein´s model of family-school-community partnership, and Pasi Sahlberg´s Nordic point of view are applied. Multiple regression analysis testing revealed that gender, grade, and student confidence in his or her learning ability explained 9.4% of the variance (R2) in students’ wishes. School experiences were added in a second model and explained an additional 8.8% of the variance (R2 change). Believing that parents’ support is important for achievement and believing that discipline and peaceful class environment affects achievement were the two variables added in the third model of the regression analysis, and the overall explanation of the model was raised to 27.6% (R2). Implications are that home-school cooperation on a lower-secondary level should focus more on activities related to the academic side of school life. Also, schools should take action in bettering the quality of factors related to students’ school experience since that could result in an increase in students’ interest for parental participation, which in turn contributes positively to academic achievement.

Health promoting schools in Iceland - SHE4AHA Erasmus+ project

Abstract Background The Green paper on ageing recognizes learning and experience in early childhood influences our lives. Healthy childhood in general shapes our future prospect, health situation and well-being. SHE4AHA Erasmus+ project approaches the Green paper and this work is lead by Schools for Health in Europe Network Foundation (SHE) in cooperation with researchers and coordinators for Health promoting schools in five countries. The green paper advocates for interventions and activities, which will help to laying the right foundation for early in life, preventing, limiting, and postponing some of the challenges linked to ageing. This could help European member states to fulfil the objective of adding healthier years to the life expectancy. Description The objective of SHE4AHA is to show Health Promoting School (HPS) framework used as a validated and evidence-based contribution to implement the Green paper on ageing that calls for solutions to support healthy and active ageing from an early age. The SHE4AHA project involves 15 pilot schools in five European countries, Iceland, Portugal, Denmark, France, and Slovenia. These schools receive training, coaching and support to work with the whole school approach for HPS. The SHE4AHA project started in March 2022 and will finish in February 2025. Each pilot school is working with aim on project selected of them to try out for the schoolyear 2022-2023. Lessons and results All pilot schools work with a pixie version of the SHE Manual made for the project. The school systems in the countries are very different and there is need for a little different approach for the countries. The three pilot schools in Iceland are also working with the Icelandic frame of being a HPS. The supporting material is e.g., checklists and interactive website. Results have shown e.g., need to increase and recognise appropriate resources like time and flexibility for coordinators at schools. Key messages • Health promoting framework built on the Ottawa Charter the process, enabling individuals and communities to increase control over the determinants of health to live an active and a productive life. • In the development process of health promoting schools, school principals, school management, teachers, other school staff, pupils and community partners need to be involved.

Reception of newly arrived immigrant schoolchildren in Iceland: Exploring challenges and dilemmas concerning teaching and assessment practices

ABSTRACT Greater cultural and linguistic diversity in Icelandic compulsory schools has resulted in various changes in educational policies, which, for instance, have been manifested as recent additions to the Icelandic national curriculum guide aimed at ensuring better education for plurilingual children. However, schoolteachers still require further preparation to enhance their skills to accommodate the educational and social needs of children from diverse cultural backgrounds and to create empowering learning environments. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study with Icelandic Master’s students who completed most courses included in their teacher education programme and had various work experience from compulsory schools in Iceland. The primary goals were to examine challenges and dilemmas that the student teachers faced when implementing different types of educational assessment of newly arrived schoolchildren and to analyse whether the teaching practices described by them align with theoretical tenets of culturally relevant and sustaining teaching. The findings indicated that, although the participants were willing to promote cultural pluralism, they were limited by their lack of theoretical and practical knowledge of relevant teaching and assessment practices. The study sheds light on some gaps in teacher education programmes in Iceland and suggests possible ways of addressing them.

Use of School-Based Interventions for ADHD, Professional Support, and Burnout Symptoms among Teachers in Iceland

Objective: Effective school-based interventions for youth with ADHD are critical to their success. We examined whether teacher application of such interventions and perceptions of professional support related to greater well-being, including fewer burnout symptoms. Method: Teachers in primary schools in Iceland were invited to participate in an online survey, including questions about professional support and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The sample comprised N = 592 (88.5% female) participants. Results: Regression analyses indicated that use of recommended ADHD interventions was positively associated with MBI-Personal Achievement (PA). Greater satisfaction with professional support related to lower MBI-Emotional Exhaustion and MBI-Depersonalization, and higher MBI-PA. Level of professional support was positively associated with use of recommended interventions. Conclusion: Effective interventions and support for students with ADHD may enhance teacher well-being. Icelandic teachers require further training and professional support in best practices for ADHD, to help promote teacher and student success.

Performing the norm in the Global North: migrant parents’ positions and participation within Icelandic schools

Parental involvement, presented as a normative construct, is widely considered a key strategy important to educational inclusion and democratic citizenship. Yet, migrant parents continue to experience exclusion within national educational settings. This study focused on the positions and participation of fourteen immigrant and refugee parents within Icelandic schools. Findings suggest that, regardless of the kind or level of involvement practised, all the parents were affected by positional boundaries in relation to their parenting practices, whereby many struggled to become involved only to find their knowledge and experiences invalidated. Such internal exclusion occurs in sharp contrast to the inclusive and democratic citizenship ideals presented as part of Icelandic educational policy and works against parents’ hopes for inclusive futures. We suggest applying Arendt’s metaphor of visiting as a way to disrupt binary power dynamics and normative understandings of parent practices and to rethink the process of parental involvement and inclusion within education.

Nizarorustu: A Textual Analysis of the Battle of Niså

Nizarorustu: A Textual Analysis of the Battle of Niså

Girls Claiming Discursive Space within the Dominant Discourse on Gender Performativity: A Case Study from a Compulsory School in Iceland

ABSTRACT This article investigates how four teenage girls claim discursive space in a compulsory school in Iceland where the dominant discourse sustains traditional gender performances and (cis)heteronormativity. It also examines how the dominant discourse positions the girls and how they resist such positioning and position themselves. The analysis draws on an ethnographic study conducted in a compulsory school, consisting of observations in various spaces therein and interviews with 13–16-year-old students. The findings suggest that Iceland’s reputation as a gender-equality utopia, with a progressive, cutting-edge curriculum, has not fundamentally changed students’ or teachers’ day-to-day realities or lived experiences. That discrepancy manifested in hegemonic ideas in the discourse on gender performativity, which is deeply rooted and reinforced through ((cis)hetero) normative gender performances. The few female students who tried to find cracks in the (cis)heteronormative discourse in order to claim discursive space for alternative gender performances were positioned as being difficult, wilful subjects—as feminist killjoys—for in addressing those cracks they dared to disturb the dominant discourse on legitimate femininity.

Letter-sound knowledge in Icelandic children at the age 6 years-old

The aim of this study was to examine letter-sound knowledge when children start at school in Iceland. 392 children aged 5–6 years completed assessments of letter-sound knowledge, i.e., the names and sounds of uppercase and lowercase letters of the Icelandic alphabet (uppercase letter-name; uppercase letter-sound; lowercase letter-name; lowercase letter-sound). Whether the child had broken the reading code (could read words) was also recorded. The results revealed no significant difference between girls and boys in the four factors (letter name, letter sound). The results indicated that 56.9 % of the children had broken the reading code when they started school. 58.2 % of the girls and 55.6 % of the boys, not significant difference between the genders. There was a significant difference between the group which had broken the reading code and the group which have not in all the four factors. There was also a high significant correlation between all 4 variables from 0.915 between uppercase letter and lowercase sound to 0.963 between uppercase sounds and uppercase letter.Based on these data, it seems reasonable to advocate learning letter-sound correspondences early in the first year of school to form the best possible basis for breaking the reading code and further reading development.

How ‘outdoors time’ transforms the social relationships of children in Iceland

This study explores the relationship between the time children spend outdoors with critical social and health factors. We use questionnaire data from the 2017–2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Iceland, focused on children in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades. All Icelandic schools with pupils in these classes were invited to participate. The HBSC study is based on a research collaboration dating back to 1983 and is in cooperation with the WHO Regional Office for Europe (Inchley et al., 2020). Every four years the study is conducted in more than 50 countries and regions across Europe and North America. Data is collected on children’s health and well-being, social environments and health behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the social and health factors that impact children in Iceland, paying attention to the diversity of this social group, and how these factors relate to their outdoor behaviour. Our analysis focuses on children’s time spent outdoors on weekdays in relation to their parents, general health, leisure, and friendship. The findings reveal a complex picture of children’s outdoor lives. The results show that a great majority of children spend time outside mostly with friends and that children with poor relationships with other children spend considerably less time outside. Children’s outdoor lives emerge as a social activity that strongly relates to physical and mental health. Interventions to increase time spent outside might focus on this social dimension rather than simply on the extent of outside time.

Character education, poetry, and wonderment: retrospective reflections on implementing a poetry programme in a secondary-school setting in Iceland

ABSTRACT Neo-Aristotelian forms of character education often draw on literary sources as materials, although rarely poetry. This article offers retrospective reflections on a poetry-based character-education intervention, conducted in an Icelandic secondary-school setting. Having run into practical difficulties during the implementation phase, the challenges of implementation were reflected upon through consultation with ten subject experts who shared their views about the enablers and barriers encountered when running such an intervention. The interviews yielded a rich data set, which often took interviewees beyond the boundaries of a poetry-based curricular context to focus on more general conditions for effective, character-inspiring school-work. Through thematic analysis, four themes were identified: freedom, time, creativity, and wonderment. Of these four, creativity had been identified in advance as an interview theme, meaning that the researchers expected to find it. The remaining three provide an insight into how, according to the interviewees, the ideal Icelandic school system should be designed. The theme of freedom addresses both negative and positive aspects of the current state of affairs, while the theme of time mostly reflects negative aspects of the Icelandic curriculum. The theme of wonderment has solely positive connotations in the minds of interviewees, and is the core of this analysis because it seems to hold the key to the question: what factors would enable an effective intervention of the sort under scrutiny here? This theme is analysed in detail, and some specific and general educational implications are elicited.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health and substance use up to March, 2022, in Iceland: a repeated, cross-sectional, population-based study.

Poor mental health in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic has been well documented in adolescents; however, less is known about the longer-term effect of the pandemic. We aimed to examine adolescent mental health and substance use as well as covariates associated with these outcomes 1 year or more into the pandemic. A nationwide sample of adolescents aged 13-18 years enrolled in school in Iceland were invited to complete surveys administered during October-November or February-March, 2018, October-November, 2020, February-March or October-November, 2021, and February-March 2022. The survey was in Icelandic for all administrations and offered to adolescents aged 13-15 years in English in 2020 and 2022 and in Polish in 2022. Surveys assessed depressive symptoms (Symptom Checklist-90); mental wellbeing (Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale); and the frequency of cigarette smoking, e-cigarette use, and alcohol intoxication. Covariates comprised age, gender, and migration status as determined by language spoken at home, level of social restrictions based on residency, parental social support, and sleep duration (≥8 h nightly). Weighted mixed-effect models were used to determine the effect of time and the covariates on mental health and substance use. The main outcomes were assessed in all participants with more than 80% of the necessary data, and multiple imputation was used to handle missing data. Bonferroni corrections were used to adjust for multiple testing and analyses were considered significant at a p value of <0·0017. 64 071 responses were submitted and analysed between 2018 and 2022. Elevated depressive symptoms and worsened mental wellbeing across girls and boys aged 13-18 years were observed to have been maintained up to 2 years into the pandemic (p>0·0017). Alcohol intoxication initially decreased during the pandemic but increased again as social restrictions eased (p<0·0001). No changes were observed in cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher levels of parental social support and an average sleep duration of 8 h or more per night were associated with mental health better outcomes and less substance use (p<0·0001). Social restrictions and migration background were inconsistently associated with the outcomes. Population-level prevention targeting adolescent depressive symptoms should be prioritised in health policy in the wake of COVID-19. Icelandic Research Fund.

Student involvement in assessment and power relations: teacher’s perspective

ABSTRACT Student involvement in assessment is considered essential to assessment for learning (AfL), mainly for developing a shared understanding of what it means to be a competent learner. However, translating AfL into practice has been difficult because teachers are reluctant to co-share assessment responsibilities with students. Thus, this paper explores secondary teachers’ perceptions of student involvement in assessment and feedback from the angle of power relations and highlights the conflicting positions and challenges of inviting students into the decision-making process and negotiations on assessment. The data set was purposefully collected from three focus groups of teachers from three upper secondary schools in Iceland. The findings indicate that power relations influence teachers’ perception of student involvement. Power relations are mediated by teachers’ positions and their knowledge, language, and space. Moreover, the findings show that developing relationships of trust is critical in creating a space for dialogue and student involvement.

Navigating the complexity of theory: Exploring Icelandic student teachers’ perspectives on supporting cultural and linguistic diversity in compulsory schooling

The pupil population has become more diverse in Icelandic schools. However, there remains a need for teachers to be better prepared to work in this changing context. Drawing on critical multiculturalism, multicultural education theory, and tenets of culturally responsive teaching, this paper explores student teachers’ perspectives on various methods which support cultural and linguistic diversity, challenge prejudice, and promote cooperation with parents from diverse cultural backgrounds. The findings indicate that the student teachers value culturally responsive teaching methods and have been able to utilise them to some extent in practice. However, despite the preparation received from their teacher education programmes, their understandings of the theoretical constructs are inconsistent and influenced by personal interests and specialisation within the programme.

Mock elections, electoral participation and political engagement amongst young people in Iceland

In this paper, we analyse whether mock elections in Iceland are fulfilling their intended purpose of increasing young voters’ participation in politics and other types of political engagement. Mock elections have been carried out in Icelandic upper secondary schools prior to parliamentary elections since 2016 (and prior to the municipal elections in 2018), but there is no peer-reviewed research about whether these elections are followed by an increase in political participation and engagement amongst young people. Socialisation is a key factor in encouraging political participation amongst young voters as the formative years between childhood and adulthood are a key period in forming behaviour and political attitudes. In this paper, we argue that mock elections have a socialisation impact in terms of increasing young people’s political awareness and engagement, including electoral participation. Based on the results from a survey sent to four upper secondary schools in Iceland, two where mock elections were held and two where they were not held, we found that mock elections have a negligible link to participation in real elections, whether voting made a difference or whether it was considered a civic duty to vote. Other main results are that in schools with mock elections, students were more politically engaged in terms of how interested they were in politics and the frequency which they discussed politics, both of which have been shown to increase the probability of voter turnout.