Hanna Sigurjónsdóttir

University of Iceland | HI · Faculty of Social and Human Sciences

The focus of this contribution is on how rights protection officers (RPOs) experience supporting parents with intellectual disabilities involved in child protection investigations. We situate the role of the RPOs within disability human rights framework as well as the institutional justice capital perspective to comprehend how RPOs function as a re...

This contribution reports on a child protection case concerning the removal of a child from the custody of a parent with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Iceland. Employing a mix of document analysis and interviewing, the results demonstrated two key themes forming the analysis: One is the aura of professionalism. A careful exam...

Background Many parents with learning disabilities find themselves locked in a struggle with child protection authorities to retain custody of their children. This struggle is one against deeply entrenched prejudices as well as social arrangements that often deprive parents of needed resources. This in‐depth case study explores the contours of such...

This article reports on a multidisciplinary project exploring constructions of disability in Iceland before the establishment of disability as a modern legal, bureaucratic, and administrative concept. The project’s vast temporal scope spans the settlement of Iceland in the late 9th century to the early 20th century, and it combines research in the...

This contribution highlights the methodological, intellectual and ethical need to integrate the principles of critical reflexive ethnography into child protection work. Drawing upon the insights from numerous research projects in Iceland, the authors contend that an ethnographic eye and a position of reflexivity are sorely needed correctives to cou...

Understanding Disability Throughout History explores seldom-heard voices from the past by studying the hidden lives of disabled people before the concept of disability existed culturally, socially and administratively. The book focuses on Iceland from the Age of Settlement, traditionally considered to have taken place from 874 to 930, until the 19...

This contribution is a collective re-analysis of three research projects in Iceland focused on parenting with a disability which draws upon data spanning a twenty-year period. The core purpose of these projects is to understand why parents with primarily intellectual disabilities encounter such difficulties with the child protection system. Our aim...

This contribution focuses on four periods in Iceland, from the early twentieth century until the time of writing, in order to document and analyse the struggles of people with intellectual disabilities to marry, have a family and maintain custody of their children. Each period is linked to specific pieces of legislation that governed the bodies and...

This contribution analyses the problematics underlying how food related matters act as evidence of parental neglect in child protection work in Iceland. Our intention is to cast a critical light upon child protection workers' judgments about the foodways practices of parents under investigation and what this says about the child protection system....

Invited as participant (with Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir) to present at the pre-congress workshop at the 2019 IASSIDD World Congress. Presentation at Workshop 2 “Demonstration of the Parenting Interaction Model” (with the Parenting SIRG), hosted by Maurice Feldman and Marjorie Aunos. Presentation entitled Parenting Capacity Assessments – System Abu...

In Iceland, disability receives disproportionate attention in custody deprivation investigations, while the long-term outcomes for children in fostering receive scant attention. Building on discourse analyses of custody deprivation cases, we call for greater understanding of how disability intersects with parenting and the need for an improved supp...

This paper presents some of the findings from the project Family Life and Disability which was conducted in Iceland from 2014 until 2017. We discuss findings that point to some systemic issues within the child protection system concerning how information about the parenting capabilities of parents with intellectual disabilities is collected and ass...

The goal of this contribution is to bring to light some systemic applications of organizational power that occur within the child protection system in Iceland. The specific focus is on the ways in which notifications are made to the child protection system concerning allegations of parental neglect on the part of parents with disabilities and a cri...

This contribution draws upon the findings from a multi-year project in Iceland entitled Family Life and Disability. One goal of the project was to analyse whether or not parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) experienced differential treatment in custody deprivation proceedings. The dataset consisted of the analysis of publicly available court...

This chapter will argue that the long-standing stigma toward people with intellectual disabilities which underpinned eugenic ideologies in the early twentieth century continues to influence contemporary practice and attitudes and is very much evident in child protection work. Despite the existence of a number of international human rights treaties...

This chapter will argue that the long-standing stigma toward people with intellectual disabilities which underpinned eugenic ideologies in the early twentieth century continues to influence contemporary practice and attitudes and is very much evident in child protection work. Despite the existence of a number of international human rights treaties...

Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir and James Gordon Rice give the view from Iceland of the challenges for parents with an intellectual disability, following their research project, sponsored by a University of Iceland Research Grant. Web publication: http://frontline-ireland.com/parents-intellectual-disability-view-iceland/

Children’s literature provides us with a unique opportunity to discuss disability but it demands a knowledge and understanding of the history of disabled people and the stereotypes that pervade that history. This chapter explores images of disability in children’s literature available to today’s children in Iceland. This includes contemporary books...

This paper reflects upon the growing narrative research with people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper we consider some of the unexpected, hidden, elusive consequences of our quests for narratives with people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper we respond to Bourdieu’s invitation to reflexivity in an attempt to unpack some of t...

Research into issues of deafness is characterised by the dominance of the medical model of disability. Although social and cultural-linguistic models have received increasing attention from scholars, they have been used mainly in theoretical debate. Empirical application has been limited. Based on our comprehensive research project into the care-re...

Disability Studies is a new interdisciplinary academic field that has developed over the past two decades. The aim of this paper is to introduce Disability Studies in Iceland including its roots, context, development, main characteristics and future prospects. Icelandic Disability Studies has developed in Nordic and international contexts and share...

The virtual sphere has the potential to provide space for different groups to voice their thoughts and opinions and in this paper we report on findings based on an analysis of the virtual discourse about disabled parents in Iceland. The virtual discourse is shaped by the deficit understanding of disability and disabled parents are commonly viewed a...

Last proofs. Fina printed book can be acquired from Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir.

The objective of this study is to analyze parental perspectives concerning the use of (re)habilitation services after Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS). A qualitative study design was used involving children with moderate-to-profound hearing loss who were born between 1999 and 2001 and who are registered in the UNHS program in Flanders, Be...

Objective To examine factors which play a role in deaf parents' decision-making process for cochlear implantation (CI) or traditional hearing aids. Participants Parents, at least one deaf, of children with severe/profound congenital hearing loss, born 1999-2004. Methods Thematic content analysis within a phenomenological approach was applied to int...

The objective of this study is to examine the early care trajectories of congenitally deaf children from a parental perspective, starting with universal neonatal hearing screenings. The analysis using a three-dimensional care trajectory concept is aimed at developing a basic typology of postscreening care trajectories. Children with severe/profound...

IntroductionThe StudiesFinding Out We're Having a BabyDoing the Work of Becoming a MotherDoing the Work of Becoming a FatherDiscussionPrinciples for PracticeReferences

The first international, cross-disciplinary book to explore and understand the lives of parents with intellectual disabilities, their children, and the systems and services they encounter. •Presents a unique, pan-disciplinary overview of this growing field of study. •Offers a human rights approach to disability and family life. •Informed by the new...

IntroductionParenting in Context – Learning from the Research LiteratureResearch with ParentsParenting in Context – Three Stories of a Family within a FamilyConclusion Principles for PracticeReferences

Abstract in English is unavailable.Samningur Sameinuðu þjóðanna um réttindi fatlaðs fólks var undirritaður af Íslandi í mars 2007, en með undirrituninni skuldbinda íslensk stjórnvöld sig til að gera ekkert sem gengur gegn efni samningsins. Um allan heim er nú litið til þessa samnings sem leiðarljóss í málefnum fatlaðs fólks og þjóðir heims, Ísland...

Icelandic article about changelings and disability in Icelandic folktales

Background Given appropriate supports mothers with intellectual disabilities can successfully raise their children. Historically, this support has been provided by extended family members while support from formal services is a recent development. This paper examines the role of extended family members in assisting mothers with intellectual disabil...

Icelandic article about disability in popular culture

This chapter is based on the experience of three adult children of mothers with intellectual disabilities in Iceland. Their mothers were in their late 70s or early 80s at the time of the study and the “children” were middle-aged people. They were: Bragi, a chef by training, married and the father of four; Sunna, married with three daughters and emp...

This chapter is about intellectually limited fathers, their experience of fatherhood and formal support services. It has two intensions. First to examine how the service system ‚s interaction with the fathers disadvantages and disempowers them by primarily concentrating services and supports on the mother and child. Second how the consequential sup...

Disability and the Life Course, first published in 2001, explores the global experience of disability using a novel life course approach. The book explores how disabling societies impact on disabled people's life experiences, and highlights the ways in which disabled people have acted to take more control over their own lives. It provides a unique...

Rannsóknin var unnin með eigindlegum aðferðum og dregur upp lifandi og áhrifaríka mynd af lífi og aðstæðum tíu seinfærra mæðra. Fjallað er um siðferðilegan og lagalegan rétt þeirra til að eiga börn, gefin er innsýn í daglegt líf, aðbúnað á heimilum, uppeldisaðstæður, félagsleg tengsl og tengsl foreldra og barna. Þá er fjallað um þann stuðning sem m...