Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

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teachers’ preparation is getting so much less and many crafts teachers are not even qualified. It depends so much on the person in the school, so there is such a difference from pupils from one school and the next. It was not within the scope of this research to ‘test’ pupils’ achievement in the arts nor was it within the remit of this research to pass judgments on the outputs of the arts education in terms of quality. These are however important questions and the arts educational community in Iceland needs to consider methods of quality assurance that are appropriate in this context. Within the compulsory school, the majority of respondents to the survey felt the quality was good or very good (73%, see Figure 5.3.2) Figure 5.3.2 Perceived quality of arts education in the compulsory school The following improvements were suggested for the compulsory school (Figure 5.3.3). Figure 5.3.3 What could improve the arts education in your school? # Ranked from 1 to 7 where 1 is most important. 5.4 Other matters 112
The following sections are other aspects of Icelandic arts education that arose in the research. These issues have not been fully researched but may signal areas that will require more sustained inquiry in other related evaluations and/or in quality monitoring. 5.4.1 Gender Anecdotally, there appeared to be a bias towards more girls than boys in a number of arts and cultural areas, especially in music and textiles. Some of our music courses are only girls. Most courses have at least 60-70% girls The students in our music school are more than 2/3 girls and only 1/3 boys. The boys are clustered into 2 instruments, guitars and percussion This may be explained historically, as the following vignette suggests: Vignette 5.4.1.1 This is a complex issue in Iceland This is a complex issue in Iceland. Traditionally, girls did cooking and sewing and boys did woodwork. But in the 1970s the women’s revolution came to Iceland. Then boys and girls became mixed in those classes and then I think for 30 years we have been trying to work it out. The textile teachers and the wood teachers have to dumb down what they do to try and please everyone. The boys are not interested in textile so you have to do something like making fishing flies to keep their interest. What then happens is that pupils entering college know only a recreational view of textiles. It is undervalued. While girls may be over represented as participants in arts and cultural activities, the reverse is so in the management of arts schools. For example, 65% of music school principals are male (see Figure 5.4.1.2) Figure 5.4.1.2 Gender of the school principal (music) 5.4.2 Talent development Arts and cultural education is generally held in mixed ability groups. The exception to this rule is music (as taught in music schools) that is predominantly individual lessons. Children in music are taught in three main ability bands and there are a range of extended opportunities for pupils with talent, such as ensembles, master classes and enhanced provision (extra classes, extended aural or theoretical training). A relatively small number of students do more than one instrument. This has fallen more since the economic downturn. For example, in one music school, only 12 out of 300 pupils did more than one instrument. Consideration could be given to a scholarship programme for talented children in the arts. There has been an argument that a special ‘school’ was needed in Iceland for elite talent development for 14-16 year olds. This would not seem to be the best option at this stage as there appears to be adequate opportunities for talented individuals to continue to develop their talent in a more connected and socially embedded way. As one respondent highlighted; “This 113
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Arts and Cultural Education in Icel
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Acknowledgements This research woul
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Helga Rut Guðmundsdóttir Helgi Vi
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5.4.2 Talent developement..........
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practices, but in reality there are
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Chapter 1: Introduction and overvie
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school type to which the comment re
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A future study could examine specif
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The number of pupils with a foreign
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pre-primary school teachers were so
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Figure 1.5.3: How useful is the Nat
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The conclusions from this report in
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primary level exceptional students
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‣ Schools and colleges should be
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Increasingly, schools are becoming
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here, it is a good cooperation. We
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In terms of suggested improvements
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There are 300 hundred pupils in thi
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Figure 1.12.2 Accessibility of the
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e active in a range of local profes
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schools have waiting lists of child
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Going to local schools… well we t
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in theatre. The students really lov
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We had a great show. The teachers d
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lot of satisfaction out of the proc
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Chapter 2 World Benchmarking 2.1 In
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Chapter 3: Responses to quality 3.1
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Figure 3.2.1 Compulsory school coll
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In the survey, dance schools report
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The school is participating in the
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