Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

seemed to vary considerably in cost with some excellent courses being available for free and
other courses of lesser quality costing considerable amounts of money.
It is very difficult to make generalisations about teachers’ access to professional
development in arts and cultural education as funds for professional development are largely
distributed at the school level and grants can come from more that one source. It was argued
that this decentralisation, with the schools being responsible for selecting courses had
contributed to the reduced priority given to professional development in arts education.
The teacher’s contract says that there are 90 hours to do training. But the focus of training is often decided by
the region. For example, the education committee will say we want mathematics, and then only courses in
mathematics are offered. So we all have to go to that course. You can talk to the union and get special funding.
The list of courses is rubbish. In the end the school pays to do something in the school. These courses cost
something like 13,000 ISK per teacher. There are supposed to be 8 pupil free days for professional development
throughout the year.
All teachers must do professional development at least twice a year as part of their contract. The teachers might
go off to something or we might get someone in to the school. The principal sends out an email of all the things
that are being offered. If I ask to go to something the principal almost always says ‘yes’. But not many of what is
on offer relate to the arts. Usually there is only 1 or 2 – and that is all over Iceland. If it is in the summer I might
be able to go. We need a more unified offer for professional development. They are also very expensive. I think
the whole area needs to be reviewed.
The high cost and lack of arts choices was a common complaint amongst the teachers and
school principals interviewed. This perceived lack of arts choices in the range of professional
development offers has led to some schools and local areas developing their own courses.
We have started to do our own professional development. One of the teachers did a great unit about Vikings.
They made skin bags and jewellery. It shows how you can use the arts. We linked the unit to poetry and the
music teacher worked together with the class teacher. The children planted a little forest, and then they created
a tree book. This is linked to science. During ‘friendship week’ we all focused on drawing. Even the staff joined in.
It really encouraged the skills to develop. I am too far from a museum here, but I use lots of pictures and show
them contemporary Icelandic art. I think you need to introduce children to skills and build the language –
foreground, palette. But make sure they enjoy art. We teach children to write even though we know they are not
all going to be writers.
There needs to be much more offered in terms of professional development in the arts. There is nothing much
available. I try to run things in the school but we need more than just what is available locally.
Where teachers have had access to qualifications and continuing professional development,
they spoke highly of the value of such opportunities. This was particularly the case amongst
preschool teachers:
By going to college and learning, it opened up a whole new perspective and really changed practices. (Her
colleague agrees, “yes it opened a whole new world for her”). I think it is a real pity but there has been a cut in
opportunities for professional development. It has become more expensive to do things.
Conversely, from the universities, colleges and other providers there was the point made
that professional development offers in the arts are made but that these are not sustainable for
a range of reasons:
We run a preschool training line where we look at ideas from the Reggio Emilio approaches. We focus on the
connection between play, art and learning. We view research as being at the centre of all learning. I think it is a
real pity what has happened in teacher training. You could go through the whole programme and never do any
arts education. All teachers need to learn about doing art. At the beginning of every teacher education
programme we need to ensure teachers understand about the value of creativity and culture.
The university has offers but there is almost nothing in the arts.
We tried to do a weekend course for the piano. Many of the teachers go abroad. The Union pays for that. You
can get up to 200,000 ISK over 3 years. You can spend it on professional development, either as an individual or
as a group. It’s funny, but the majority of teachers don’t use it.
84