Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

Despite the geographical challenges, there were a number of good practice examples were small
and isolated schools and communities were engaging in innovative ways to ensure that the
pupils in their areas received high quality arts and cultural education, as the following vignette
from a small rural compulsory school suggests:
Vignette 3.7.7 We are a small school
We are a small school. There are altogether only 40 pupils.
We do singing three times a week to start the day. We are currently practicing songs for the traditional day on Friday.
Every child learns a musical instrument – guitar, flute, and electric base, piano. We have a school band and the
children compose songs and create soundscapes. Music teacher come to the school. It costs around 50,000 ISK per
year.
All pupils get general music from pre-primary school to the 7th grade. This includes singing and listening, but it does
not focus on teaching the children to read music. Some teachers travel to the school to teach instruments, like the
accordion.
We have dancing classes from Pre-primary school to grade 5 and dance and drama for grades 6, 7 and 8. The older
children completed an expressive dance piece about the Cold War. We combine percussion and dance. We pay for the
dance teacher out of the school budget. The visual arts teacher is based here. She has a full-time job and is trained.
Each class does 80 minutes per week of visual arts. They also do 80 minutes per week of sewing and textile. She is also
a specialist teacher. They are supposed to have 40 minutes per week, but we do 80 minutes a week for half a term. It
is fantastic.. Art stops in the 8th grade, but we have a period once a week when the older children can choose and
many of them choose woodwork or hair or make-up.
We have some children that have been placed here from other areas because they have had problems in their school.
They come here and live with a family. At first I was worried, but it actually works well and they fit in and seem happy.
We celebrate lots of festivals and events throughout the year. Everybody does something, but a person with expertise
will take control. We also participate in a student exchange programme with a small school on the Faroe Islands. The
9th and 10th grade raise money to go on an excursion to Reykjavik. We try to visit the gallery and take in a play. The
older pupils organise a disco for the youngest pupils. They do everything – the music; the lighting, a shop and they
even clean up!
3.8 Detailed assessment, reflection and evaluation strategies
‣ All schools visited had formal procedures for assessing the arts
‣ In terms of assessment, the arts were treated in the same way as other subject areas
‣ Younger children tend to receive an assessment comment while older pupils are more
inclined to receive marks and grades alongside a comment
‣ More teacher training and professional development could occur in innovative and
creative assessment methods in the arts so that teachers can track pupils’ learning and
monitor the quality of programmes
Formal and informal contemplative practices encourage people to view their work more
critically and reflectively.
Reflection is not part of education either in policy or in practice. We need to be given the responsibility to take
initiative and to be accountable. In theory, education in Iceland is a very open system, so people can just come in
and have a go.
The arts teacher told us that she encouraged the children to talk about their art, what they thought was good
and what not so good.
Assessment of the arts is a routine part of arts learning in Iceland. Younger children tend to
get a comment based on their interest and enjoyment of the arts, while older children will get a
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