Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

have well-equipped specialist rooms for textile, woodcraft and computer design. There appears
to be readily available arts resources such as paint and paper and musical instruments. In most
schools, fundraising by parents supports arts programmes by providing such ‘extras’ as theatre
or other visits and additional resources. None of the schools visited felt that they lacked
adequate resources to deliver quality arts programmes, though some concern was expressed
that this situation might change in the future.
The upper secondary colleges visited were very well-resourced in terms of both rooms and
materials. While less common, some schools and colleges also had specialist dance and drama
spaces. Music and other after school schools were also very well-equipped with high quality
teaching spaces and resources.
Some schools have students’ art displayed in the classroom and in publicly accessible parts
of the school, but the range and standard of these displays varied considerably. While particular
schools have well-labelled and carefully presented, dynamic displays of pupils’ work, there is a
general lack of emphasis given to public presentation. Public presentation of work is important
as research suggests that pupils should be encouraged to produce more ‘resolved’, quality
artworks and performances for public presentation. The lack of displays may have been
influenced by the timing of the research, with some schools commenting that work was
removed over the holiday period, but this seems to not fully explain the lack of presentation of
pupils’ work.
With a few notable exceptions, there is a lack of displays in and around schools of the pupils’
achievements in the arts. It is a key factor to enhancing quality that work is displayed and
presented in a way that accords with professional standards in the field. For example, artworks
should be mounted, labelled and hung with an awareness of the curatorial process. Display and
presentation should be a key element of textile, woodcraft and design courses. Even in schools
that have clear spaces for exhibitions, these are rarely attractively used. For instance in one
school, children’s work from 2003 was still on display, despite its yellowed and unappealing
appearance.
There appears to be a trend in more recently built schools towards making very flexible use
of the school facilities. For example, schools may be designed around large shared spaces
instead of classrooms. Similarly, classes might be grouped to enable flexible and ‘team’ teaching.
Multi-age classes were also apparent. Teachers appeared to enjoy working flexibility. This had
generally encouraged more creative learning, though a small but significant number of teachers
felt that more ‘open’ classes may have actually decreased creativity as teachers working in more
open rooms were concerned by “disturbing other teachers” and felt “desk work” was “easier to
manage” than creative work.
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