Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson

An Inevitable Progress? Educational restructuring in Finland, Iceland and Sweden at the turn of the millennium

The article discusses how current changes in the system of reasoning about education in Finland, Iceland and Sweden are characterised by culturally woven patterns where marketisation strategies, for instance budget reform, are introduced as technically effective devices both for educating the best and to increase inclusion. This system of reason presupposes that the neo-liberalist restructuring changes are inevitable global phenomena and that they are a progress compared with the old arrangements, but is silent about socio-economic issues and the equity goals of the 1960s-1980s. The article also argues that school-based self-evaluation as a practice and as a language is a normalising technique that ensures that school actors will identify the obstacles encountered in the restructuring transition so that neither state nor other authorities intervene.

Education Governance in Transition: An introduction

The purpose of this article is to present concepts and research problems dealing with education governance and social inclusion and exclusion. Education restructuring, as a recent international movement, is regarded as a combination of transitions in governing and new managerialism. Social inclusion and exclusion is conceived of as a duplet concept, mutually defining each other. The relation between new governance - deregulation, decentralisation, privatisation and steering by goals and results - and social inclusion/exclusion is conceptualised as an equity problematic and a knowledge problematic. It is argued that there is a need to understand the system of reason in order to capture the implications of education governing in transition.

Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland

The article explores how the Icelandic public school curriculum for early childhood, compulsory and upper secondary school deals with education for sustainable development. As the curriculum does not often mention the term sustainability, a key with which to investigate signs of education for sustainable development in the three curricula was created. The key encourages a holistic view of sustainable development, where economic, environmental and social factors are not treated as separate entities. It was designed to reflect the goals of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) with research on environmental education and education for sustainable development in mind. The key has seven characteristics: values, opinions and emotions about nature and environment; knowledge contributing to a sensible use of nature; welfare and public health; democracy, participation, and action competence; equality and multicultural issues; global awareness; and finally, economic development and future prospects. Using the key, a variety of signs and indicators that provide a space for teachers and schools to deal with issues of sustainable development were identified.

“Strong, Independent, Able to Learn More …”: Inclusion and the construction of school students in Iceland as diagnosable subjects

This paper deals with the way the vision of including children with special educational needs into their home school, constituted for instance in UNESCOs The Salamanca Statement and Framework on Special Needs Education, has merged with other contemporary discourses (ideas and practices) in Icelandic education. In particular, the paper focuses on the historical conjuncture of inclusion politics, individualism, a technological approach to education, and market ideology and practices in Icelandic education. These approaches are analysed as discursive patterns of legitimating principles functioning in Icelandic education at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Manifestations of Heterosexism in Icelandic Upper Secondary Schools and the Responses of LGBT Students

How does institutionalized heterosexism manifest itself in Icelandic upper secondary schools and how do lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students respond to these manifestations? In addressing these questions, interviews were conducted with six current and former LGBT upper secondary school students, using queer theory and thematic analysis. It is argued that institutionalized heterosexism prevails in the structure and culture of the schools under investigation, although to varying degrees. LGBT youth experienced institutionalized heterosexism daily in their dealings with faculty and fellow students. The LGBT students who were interviewed responded to the oppressive nature of institutionalized heterosexism in various ways. Some tried to resist the system actively while others did so more subtly. In general, their stories can be interpreted as having destabilizing effects on the heterosexual system.

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

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 financial 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.

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

This article deals with the ways in which historical discourse analysis is at once different from and similar to research described as qualitative or quantitative. It discusses the consequences of applying the standards of such methods to historical discourse analysis. It is pointed out that although the merit of research using historical discourse analysis must not be judged by the standards of qualitative methods alone, it can be easier to admit the influence of the discourse on methodology. Therefore, the article considers whether and how the ideas of validity, reliability, sample, and transferability can be used to explain the merit of study using historical discourse analysis. The author also discusses the basic concepts and principles of historical discourse analysis, and he describes step-by-step a particular way of conducting historical discourse analysis.

‘Let's go outside’: Icelandic teachers' views of using the outdoors

This article discusses the views of 25 Icelandic preschool and compulsory school teachers who were interviewed on the role of the outdoor environment in childrens learning. The teachers reported not being afraid to take children outside. These teachers valued the learning potentials of the outdoors more than they feared the possible risks. They believed that the outdoors could provide opportunities for (a) enhancing childrens play and learning (b) promoting childrens health, well-being, and courage, and (c) affecting childrens views, knowledge, and actions towards sustainability.

People With Intellectual Disabilities in Iceland: A Bourdieuean Interpretation of Self-Advocacy

There are many barriers to social participation in Iceland for people with intellectual disabilities. This article builds on qualitative research with young adults with intellectual disabilities. The purpose of this article is to develop an approach where the struggles over the meaning of social participation of people with intellectual disabilities are seen as social strategies. In the article, the authors suggest that people with intellectual disabilities are carving out a space where intellectual disability is gaining higher social status. They also posit that people with intellectual disabilities use several social strategies in the emerging field of self-advocacy for the purpose of improving their social position. Thus, the article contributes to a new social understanding of disability and how people with disabilities gain authority over their lives and experiences.

Icelandic Nationalism and the Kyoto Protocol: an Analysis of the Discourse on Global Environmental Change in Iceland

The paper analyses the discourse on global environmental change in Iceland in official reports and newspaper discussions around the turn of the millennium. Three competing discursive positions were found. First, Iceland can provide clean energy for the world so that aluminium smelters do not need to burn as much fossil fuels as they would have to do otherwise. Second, Iceland is responsible to the world for the protection of its environment because Icelanders have a unique land to protect – the largest unpopulated and untouched area in western Europe. Third, Iceland can help the world by contributing its vast land areas to grow grass and forests and fix carbon dioxide, in part because some of these areas are especially well suited to soil reclamation and afforestation. The study focuses on the use of nationalistic arguments for the global role and responsibility of Iceland in environmental matters.