Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

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Iceland was ranked first in the United Nations’ Human Development Index report in 2007/2008. Icelanders are the second longest-living nation with a life expectancy at birth of 81.8 years. Concurrently, Iceland is a very technologically advanced society. By 1999, 82.3% of Icelanders had access to a computer. Iceland also had 1,007 mobile phone subscriptions per 1,000 people in 2006 – the 16th highest rate in the world. Despite the current economic crisis, Iceland has a strong economic base and while the economic growth rate has slowed, it is still 0.3% per annum. Iceland is the fourth most productive country in the world by nominal gross domestic product per capita (54,858 USD), and the fifth most productive by GDP at purchasing power parity (40,112 USD). In the beginning of the 20th Century, Iceland was granted autonomous status from Denmark (in 1918), which meant that the country was free to conduct its own domestic policies. There are seventy-nine municipalities in Iceland which govern local matters like schools, transportation and zoning. Reykjavík is by far the most populous municipality, being around four times more populous than Kópavogur, the second most populous. Of particular relevance to this research, Iceland has the highest proportion of under 24 years olds of any country in Europe (36.4%) 6 and Iceland has the highest percentage in Europe of 'arts and cultural active' citizens with just under 86% activity rate reported in 2006 7 . In autumn 2008 there were 43,511 pupils in compulsory education in Iceland. The number of pupils has decreased by 330 since the previous school year, or by 0.7%. It is expected that the number of pupils in compulsory education will continue to decrease in the next years, since the age groups that will be entering compulsory education are smaller than the age groups that will be completing compulsory education. The number of pupils in compulsory education in Iceland was greatest in autumn 2003 when there was a total of 44,809 8 pupils. There are currently 173 compulsory schools operating in Iceland – the same number as in the previous year. New schools opened while others were shut down or united with other schools. There are four special education schools operating in Iceland with 146 pupils in attendance. The number of pupils in private schools has risen steadily since 2005 (see Figure 1.4.1) but still represents a very small percentage of pupils, with the vast majority of pupils attending their local, government school. During the school year 2007-2008 there were 9 private schools operating, catering for a total of 664 pupils. The number of pupils has increased by 92 since the previous school year. The number of pupils in private compulsory schools has never been greater since the start of the data collection by Statistics Iceland in 1997. In 2007, 54.4% more pupils attended private schools than in the autumn of 2004.Two new private schools operating according to the Hjalli pedagogy opened in autumn 2007, increasing the number of private schools by a further two. Figure 1.4.1 Pupils in private schools 4 http://www.statice.is/enrolled http://www.statice.is/Statistics/Education 5 http://www.statice.is/Statistics/Education/Pre-primary-institutions 6 Eurostat cultural Statistics 2007 7 ibid 8 These figures are derived from the Statistics Iceland data collection from compulsory schools, which is undertaken in October every year. Statistics Iceland has collected this information since the autumn of 1997. 16
The number of pupils with a foreign mother tongue has increased but still represents a very small percentage of the total of pupils, compared to the general pattern in Europe. In the autumn of 2008, 2,069 pupils have a foreign mother tongue, or around 4,7% of all pupils. Polish speakers are the largest foreign group in schools, with the majority of these living outside the capital area. There were 5,101 teaching staff members in autumn 2008 and 9.5 pupils per full-time equivalent teacher. This is a low pupil teacher ratio and the number of pupils per full-time equivalent teacher has decreased each year. For example, in autumn 1998 there were 13.3 pupils for each full-time equivalent teacher. On average there are 18.4 pupils in each class and the average class size increases with the higher age of pupils. The average class size is smallest in the 1st grade (16.5) while the largest classes are in the 9th grade, with 19.7 pupils on average. 9 In terms of class sizes specifically in the arts, woodwork and textile are likely to be taught as half classes (around 12 or less pupils), alternating for different times throughout the year. Music and visual arts may also be taught this way. In a general sense, the arts and cultural scene is very energetic and people in Iceland (in and outside the arts and cultural field) are highly supportive of the arts. People are inclined to value the arts and give financial and voluntary support to a range of arts activities. As this comment suggests, there is a strong sense of community around the arts; “Everyone is putting so much in and continue to be committed to it throughout their lives.” The following table (Figure 1.4.2) summarises the main benefits of living in Iceland, in terms of art and cultural education as summarised from all the focus groups during the research. Figure 1.4.2 Perceived strengths of the ‘arts scene’ in Iceland Benefit Frequency Freedom/flexibility 16 Local choirs 2 Close and active networks 4 Active community (grassroots) support 7 Dialogue between communities 1 Plenty of possibilities to try things 1 Strong amateur arts groups (e.g. Theatre, art, music) 2 Dividing the class so we teach half classes 1 Good quality facilities 3 Teachers have freedom 2 School principals are keen to try new things 1 Music schools 15 Arts grants 7 Craft 6 A history of literature 6 Accessibility of education for all 6 Quality of life 2 A small world for creative ideas to flourish 6 9 http://www.statice.is/Pages/444?NewsID=2990 17
Page 1 and 2: Arts and Cultural Education in Icel
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements This research woul
Page 5 and 6: Helga Rut Guðmundsdóttir Helgi Vi
Page 7 and 8: 5.4.2 Talent developement..........
Page 9 and 10: practices, but in reality there are
Page 11 and 12: Chapter 1: Introduction and overvie
Page 13 and 14: school type to which the comment re
Page 15: A future study could examine specif
Page 19 and 20: pre-primary school teachers were so
Page 21 and 22: Figure 1.5.3: How useful is the Nat
Page 23 and 24: The conclusions from this report in
Page 25 and 26: primary level exceptional students
Page 27 and 28: ‣ Schools and colleges should be
Page 29 and 30: Increasingly, schools are becoming
Page 31 and 32: here, it is a good cooperation. We
Page 33 and 34: In terms of suggested improvements
Page 35 and 36: There are 300 hundred pupils in thi
Page 37 and 38: Figure 1.12.2 Accessibility of the
Page 39 and 40: e active in a range of local profes
Page 41 and 42: schools have waiting lists of child
Page 43 and 44: Going to local schools… well we t
Page 45 and 46: in theatre. The students really lov
Page 47 and 48: We had a great show. The teachers d
Page 49 and 50: lot of satisfaction out of the proc
Page 51 and 52: Chapter 2 World Benchmarking 2.1 In
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 3: Responses to quality 3.1
Page 55 and 56: Figure 3.2.1 Compulsory school coll
Page 57 and 58: In the survey, dance schools report
Page 59 and 60: The school is participating in the
Page 61 and 62: visitors. The diverse and ‘quirky
Page 63 and 64: A smaller group of girls performs a
Page 65 and 66: Figure 3.3.6 Pupil performances in
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way the children’s artworks were
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has always been and it is 20 or 30
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‣ Funding should encourage risk t
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music sector could be less constrai
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Conversely, the accessibility of ou
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Vignette 3.7.4 Every day there are
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Despite the geographical challenges
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In visual arts we mainly assess acc
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We try to do professional developme
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This vignette from an academic in t
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in offering adult education. Other
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demanding more of our schools and t
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It was argued that the arts may not
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(teacher a professional photographe
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There is a lot of respect amongst p
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“The popularity of pop music is g
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Others would argue that the connect
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interrelationship with nature and c
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From this summary, it can be seen t
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training of senior secondary arts t
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Vignette 5.2.4 Our selection proces
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There is a lack of connection betwe
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During the research, various school
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The following sections are other as
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For older pupils, there are electiv
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Before I came here no-one was doing
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Creative and cultural industries Mo
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While the previously listed recomme
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Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

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