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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Other music schools felt that local fund<strong>in</strong>g rules prevented group teach<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> that <strong>in</strong> fact<br />
group teach<strong>in</strong>g was preferable. The follow<strong>in</strong>g vignette (12.1.6) is from a regional music school<br />
that has undertaken research <strong>in</strong>to group teach<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> also work<strong>in</strong>g more closely with schools.<br />
Vignette 1.12.6The children learn more quickly<br />
This is a large music school with over 540 private music pupils. The school also runs 150 preschool music lessons. They<br />
like to work <strong>in</strong>side the compulsory school <strong>and</strong> the pre-primary school <strong>and</strong> work alongside the regular music teachers.<br />
Their fund<strong>in</strong>g comes 50% from private sources <strong>and</strong> 50% from the local council. When work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> schools, they split the<br />
class <strong>in</strong> half <strong>and</strong> have around 8 pupils. This is optimum <strong>and</strong> better than private lessons as the children learn quickly.<br />
The music school director expla<strong>in</strong>s:<br />
We are try<strong>in</strong>g to put an emphasis on group play<strong>in</strong>g. We f<strong>in</strong>d even for piano the children learn more quickly.” We have<br />
private lessons too. We allow the teachers to choose where they want to work, either <strong>in</strong> group lessons or private<br />
lessons. It works well to give choice as some of the teachers love work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the schools <strong>and</strong> others don’t like it. It is<br />
based around the talent of the teacher <strong>and</strong> their own way of deal<strong>in</strong>g with music learn<strong>in</strong>g. Our <strong>in</strong>strumental work <strong>in</strong><br />
schools is based around the recorder.<br />
I have been argu<strong>in</strong>g for much more flexibility <strong>in</strong> music schools. We should be able to use our professional judgement,<br />
not be tied <strong>in</strong>to teach<strong>in</strong>g one way or another. We try to put the pupils first.” In keep<strong>in</strong>g with this idea, the school has a<br />
policy of giv<strong>in</strong>g preference to young children. They work <strong>in</strong> schools<strong>and</strong> go around to the small villages. They allow the<br />
children to choose <strong>in</strong>struments, but <strong>in</strong> practical way have to sometimes limit the choices especially <strong>in</strong> smaller villages.<br />
We are not a rich area here. I would like all children to have an hour a week of music, but at the moment, 50% only do<br />
30 m<strong>in</strong>utes per week. Parents have to pay 58,800 ISK for one hour per week for the year, but only 37,300 ISK for 30<br />
m<strong>in</strong>utes per week.<br />
We provide all the preschool music lessons for free.<br />
We would like to see the policy of the municipality change so we can offer group teach<strong>in</strong>g, so children can have more<br />
time <strong>and</strong> it would be cheaper.<br />
We did a survey with the teachers <strong>and</strong> 25 out of 35 teachers said they would be very happy to teach group classes<br />
dur<strong>in</strong>g school time. Only 5/35 said that they would not like to do group teach<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> would only want to do private<br />
lessons.<br />
Our job is to serve the community. I would like this school to be <strong>and</strong> arts school not just music. I could th<strong>in</strong>k of so<br />
many ways this could work, but the rules do not allow the fund<strong>in</strong>g for that idea. I th<strong>in</strong>k mix<strong>in</strong>g the arts could make it<br />
more fun. If we stop to th<strong>in</strong>k of it, maybe only 1% of our pupils will actually become musicians. The other 99% need<br />
good arts education.<br />
In government supported music schools, the salaries of teachers <strong>and</strong> adm<strong>in</strong>istrators are paid<br />
by the local government under an agreement formed <strong>in</strong> 1989. The salary of music school<br />
teachers varies accord<strong>in</strong>g to their experience, qualification an hours worked, but is generally<br />
around the same level as teachers work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the compulsory school.<br />
Places <strong>in</strong> the music school are available from around the age of 3 for pre-school music, but <strong>in</strong><br />
most cases, <strong>in</strong>strumental music education tends to beg<strong>in</strong> around 8 years of age. Many music<br />
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