Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford
Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford
Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford
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fantastic <strong>and</strong> I’d like very much to be able to cont<strong>in</strong>ue dance. I’d like to have danc<strong>in</strong>g for all students <strong>in</strong> the spr<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong><br />
we are work<strong>in</strong>g hard to get a dance teacher as I th<strong>in</strong>k dance is very important.<br />
Because we are so isolated, I tried to br<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> visit<strong>in</strong>g performers. Every class group does a theatre production or small<br />
play before Christmas <strong>and</strong> everyone goes on stage <strong>and</strong> everyone is <strong>in</strong> the performance. It’s a great family occasion, we<br />
dr<strong>in</strong>k cocoa, dance around the Christmas tree, <strong>and</strong> share a meal. We also have an annual festival on March the 20 th or<br />
sometime usually near Easter. We put a lot of work <strong>in</strong>to that <strong>and</strong> once aga<strong>in</strong> we do one large play where everyone is<br />
on stage, everyone has to say someth<strong>in</strong>g. Teachers help too, they sew costumes <strong>and</strong> so on. It’s really not normal<br />
lessons <strong>in</strong> the lead up to that; it is all centred on the arts. This is very popular <strong>and</strong> everyone wants to go to it. Parents<br />
pay to go <strong>and</strong> that is great as it helps us to do a school trip. Last year our trip went to Denmark.<br />
We try to do a trip every three years but I do not know if we will be able to do that <strong>in</strong> the future. The parents also<br />
support the trip by rais<strong>in</strong>g money. We also try to go to the larger town nearby, def<strong>in</strong>itely to visit the museum <strong>and</strong> art<br />
collection. We try to go on Thursday <strong>and</strong> come back on Friday, but once aga<strong>in</strong> this is paid for by the parents <strong>and</strong> I'm<br />
not sure <strong>in</strong> the future we will be able to do this. We usually do it <strong>in</strong> the spr<strong>in</strong>g when the weather is better, but we have<br />
to get a bus <strong>and</strong> pay for food <strong>and</strong> accommodation. We try to subsidise it but we have to pay for teachers <strong>and</strong> extra<br />
parents to come too as young children must have their parents with them. We try to work with the parents<br />
association. The budget has not changed so far.<br />
There has always been a lot of art here, we are very rich <strong>in</strong> culture <strong>and</strong> we have well educated families to support the<br />
arts. We try to develop the children’s talents as we th<strong>in</strong>k the arts are very important. It’s <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g because the<br />
maths teacher even says the arts are really important. The teacher <strong>in</strong> the highest grade is teach<strong>in</strong>g history <strong>and</strong><br />
Icel<strong>and</strong>ic but she is actually a tra<strong>in</strong>ed arts teacher; that is how we <strong>in</strong>tegrate th<strong>in</strong>gs. We work a lot on the arts <strong>in</strong> all<br />
lessons, some teachers are better at work<strong>in</strong>g with the arts than others, but still, all teachers have someth<strong>in</strong>g to do<br />
with the arts. The parents are really supportive <strong>and</strong> I am really supportive of the teachers.<br />
I’ll try to take some of the teachers’ lessons so they can f<strong>in</strong>ish their qualifications. We are work<strong>in</strong>g on assessments;<br />
we take notes <strong>and</strong> evaluate the children. We do report<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> November <strong>and</strong> February <strong>and</strong> this is through a parent<br />
teacher meet<strong>in</strong>g. All classes get a grade <strong>in</strong> the arts <strong>and</strong> we also give them a comment or special words <strong>and</strong> we try to<br />
f<strong>in</strong>d someth<strong>in</strong>g for everybody. Parents are very supportive <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> a recent survey we were found to be very good <strong>and</strong><br />
very few children have left. Some people even come to this area because the school is so good.<br />
Vignette 5.4.3.3 Rural music school<br />
We are a very established music school. We have been runn<strong>in</strong>g for over 35 years <strong>and</strong> have 150 students who are<br />
learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>struments or s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g. We have a connection to the general school <strong>in</strong> the first <strong>and</strong> second grades, where<br />
they get lessons <strong>in</strong> an <strong>in</strong>troduction to music. This is paid for by the community. Pupils can also start com<strong>in</strong>g to our<br />
classes privately from seven years of age onwards.<br />
In the music school, 85 percent of our pupils are under 18 years of age. They can choose any <strong>in</strong>strument <strong>and</strong> specialise<br />
<strong>in</strong> either pop or classical music. We have 12 teachers but four of our teachers only work part time most of which are<br />
work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the elementary school.<br />
It is very hard to get good Icel<strong>and</strong>ic teachers to come to this part of town, 70 percent of our teachers are foreign. We<br />
hope that we will have more Icel<strong>and</strong>ic teachers <strong>in</strong> the future because of the economic situation. Our teachers<br />
currently come from all over the world Scotl<strong>and</strong>, F<strong>in</strong>l<strong>and</strong>, Lithuania, Spa<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> Germany. They don’t have courses <strong>in</strong><br />
pedagogy as teachers, most of them are musicians but they have quickly become part of the local music scene. Some<br />
of our courses are also taught by our secondary students they get credit if they come <strong>and</strong> work with us.<br />
We have four official concerts per year <strong>and</strong> a chamber concert once a month. We also do impromptu concerts such as<br />
play<strong>in</strong>g for the pre-primary school or at the old people’s home. We try to be accessible for all pupils, some people<br />
haven’t been tra<strong>in</strong>ed. We had one child last year who had hyperactivity <strong>and</strong> previously we had one with downsyndrome,<br />
but this year we have no children with special needs.<br />
We do not have a wait<strong>in</strong>g list <strong>and</strong> everyone can come if they want to come. About one third of the town’s children do<br />
attend the music class. The music school is <strong>in</strong> the new build<strong>in</strong>g as the previous one was affected by an avalanche. It’s<br />
<strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g it would mostly be just music <strong>and</strong> everyone would th<strong>in</strong>k it to be positive.<br />
The pupils pay around 45thous<strong>and</strong> ISK per year for one <strong>in</strong>strument if they do a full programme of study. It is one hour<br />
of private tutor<strong>in</strong>g which is usually taught as two 30m<strong>in</strong>ute lessons. They also have to do a theory class <strong>and</strong> oral<br />
tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g. Some additionally participate <strong>in</strong> a str<strong>in</strong>g orchestra or a brass group, we do not charge anymore for that.<br />
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