Modern Educational Sagas: Legitimation of ideas and practices in Icelandic education

Abstract

The article tells the story of changes in governance discourse and practices in Icelandic primary and secondary education in the late 1990s. Budget reform, curriculum changes and school-based self-evaluation aimed at a greater nancial and pedagogical accountability of school professionals, especially principals, has changed the roles of principals and teachers. A clinical approach to diagnosing special educational needs views inclusion as a technical matter rather than as a social goal and enhances the emphases on the individual and her or his needs, proposed in the curriculum discourse. These kinds of reform have entered the educational discourse in Iceland, looking as if they were inevitable steps towards progress in the new millennium. They are modern educational sagas about Iceland and its place and role in global competition.

Conflicts in teachers’ professional practices and perspectives about inclusion in Icelandic compulsory schools

“…This is in line with similar trends identified by researchers in Iceland, Europe and elsewhere (see e.g. Day and Smethem 2009;Jóhannesson, Geirsdóttir, and Finnbogason 2002) where governmental interventions resulted in educational policies without teacher support. Consequently, the teachers did not see it as their task to take the initiative of studying and implementing ideas about inclusive education.…”

“…Teaching is now defined as a more complex job than it was a few decades ago, for example, due to consequences of social change (Jóhannesson 2006;Jóhannesson, Geirsdóttir, and Finnbogason 2002; The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture 2012), and teachers are expected to become highly capable so that they can deal with the multiple tasks of modern teaching (Vlachou 1997). In this context, Hargreaves (2000) argues that 'there are increasing efforts to build strong professional cultures of collaboration to develop common purpose, to cope with uncertainty and complexity' (165).…”

The politics of historical discourse analysis: a qualitative research method?

“…It is not least this step that distinguishes historical discourse analysis from other types of discourse or text analysis. In this case, the EGSIE study about the educational policy (e.g., Jó hannesson et al, 2002;Lindblad et al, 2002) was the most important research context for the study I describe here Á but also my earlier studies of legitimating principles in the debates about educational reform in Iceland in the 1970s and 1980s (Jó hannesson, 1991(Jó hannesson, , 1992.…”

“…I studied the issue of special educational needs within the discourse of education and educational reform. I was completing work in a large international study, entitled Educational Governance and Social Integration/Exclusion (EGSIE) (see, for example, Lindblad, Jó hannesson, & Simola, 2002;Jó hannesson, Geirsdó ttir, & Finnbogason, 2002), when I discovered that special educational needs were treated as an issue of management rather than a pedagogical concern (as I felt these matters should be treated). I thought that this was a contradiction and decided to continue, at first out of a mere curiosity, but then I saw that this might be an opportunity to reveal that in this historical conjuncture practices, which no one in particular was likely to have aimed at, were legitimated.…”

‘Different Children — A Tougher Job’. Icelandic Teachers Reflect on Changes in Their Work

“…Of interviews with 61 individuals, 34 were primary schools, including 18 teachers and 16 principals of different age, of which 14 were men and 20 were women. Schools were selected by the research team to reflect experiments or leadership in inclusion or governance practices and interviewees were either hand picked by the research team or asked to participate by the principals (Mýrdal et al, 2001;Jóhannesson et al, 2002b). The interviewees were asked about changes in the last 5-15 years.…”