Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Iceland

Í greininni er fjallað um hvað ellefu ungir kvenkyns kennarar í íslenskum grunnskólum gerðu til að ná og halda jafnvægi milli starfs og einkalífs. Rannsóknin var eigindleg og fólst í því að tekin voru raðviðtöl við ellefu unga kennara frá hausti 2021 til vors 2023. Rannsóknin styðst við fræði um starfsaðstæður kennara og fræði um tilfinningar og ti...

Rannsóknin er um hvernig nýlega brautskráðum kvenkyns kennurum í grunnskólum vegnaði í starfinu fyrstu árin, að hvaða leyti starfsumhverfi þeirra var kynjað og kvenvætt, og hvað reyndist styðjandi og hvað krefjandi. Greinin er byggð á viðtölum við fjóra kvenkyns nýliða sem rætt var við þrisvar til fjórum sinnum, á eins til tveggja ára tímabili. Kon...

Áhyggjur af því að rými barna í leikskólum sé of lítið urðu til þess að ákveðið var að rannsaka það. Mældar voru 38 leikskóladeildir í 30 leikskólum á höfuðborgarsvæðinu og tekin viðtöl við deildarstjóra í þriðjungi skólanna. Hér er gerð grein fyrir völdum hlutum rannsóknarinnar. Í fyrsta lagi er sagt frá þróun reglna um rými í leikskólum. Í öðru l...

This article focuses on the challenges and difficulties faced by the Lithuanian teaching profession in primary schools. It asks how the post-Soviet educational reforms in Lithuania have affected teachers and what the gendered implications for the teaching profession are in Lithuania. Two theoretical approaches were used: the first is a critique of...

Mikil fjölmiðlaumræða varð um leikskóla á árunum 2020–2022. Þann 14. janúar 2020 samþykkti meirihluti skóla- og frístundaráðs Reykjavíkurborgar að stytta opnunartíma leikskóla um hálftíma síðdegis, hafa skólana opna til 16:30 í stað kl. 17. Við greindum umræðuna næstu 13 daga á eftir. Einnig voru greindir kosningapistlar fyrstu 13 dagana í maí 2022...

September 2021 saw the publication of a document named Education Policy 2030. First Action Plan 2021-2024 (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2021). The plan is intended to serve as a follow-up to Parliamentary resolution on education policy for the years 2021–2030, no. 16. This is probably the most significant document on educational policy since...

In this article, we examine how policymakers from three Nordic countries, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, reflect on the future at 2 different points in time: just before the first PISA study (1998-1999) and more than 15 years later (2015-2017). The empirical data consist of interviews (N = 37) with national policymakers, collected in two comparative...

Markmið rannsóknarinnar var að skoða leikefni í nokkrum leikskólum út frá kynjafræðilegu sjónarhorni og kanna viðhorf leikskólakennara til leiks og leikefnis barna. Fylgst var með starfi einnar elstu deildar í sex leikskólum hluta úr degi og tekin viðtöl við deildarstjórana. Áhorfið var notað sem umræðugrundvöllur í viðtölunum en einnig voru deildi...

Út kom í september á síðasta ári skjal sem nefnist Menntastefna 2030. Fyrsta aðgerðaáætlun 2021–2024 (Mennta- og menningarmálaráðuneyti, 2021). Áætlunin er samin til að fylgja eftir Þingsályktun um menntastefnu fyrir árin 2021–2030 nr 16. Þetta er líklega þýðingarmesta stefnumótunarskjal um menntamál síðan aðalnámskrá leik-, grunn- og framhaldsskól...

Rannsóknin er um fyrstu tvö ár sjö kennslukarla í starfi sem grunnskólakennarar. Spurt var: Hvaða og hvers konar formlegir sem óformlegir þættir í skólunum reyndust styðjandi við starf nýju kennslukarlanna? Fram kom að formleg leiðsögn var takmörkuð en margt í starfi skólanna reyndist þeim notadrjúgt, þar með taldar góðar móttökur og vinsamlegt við...

This article presents an interview study with seven newly-graduated male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools. We interviewed them five times during their first two years of teaching. The focus is on the ways in which the gender of the novice teachers mattered in the expectations that they experienced and how these expectations interacted with...

In this article, we consider how girls are positioned in school by what we have chosen to call the discourse of drama. The widely held notion that Nordic girls have it all along with this drama discourse are seen to be the key narratives that reinforce a hegemonic form of girlhood. This ethnographic study focuses on the relations of students betwee...

Umfjöllunarefni greinarinnar er karlkyns sjúkraliðar og störf þeirra á vettvangi þar sem langflest starfsfólk er kvenkyns og var meginrannsóknarspurningin hver reynsla karla væri af starfi sjúkraliða. Tekin voru viðtöl við átta karlkyns sjúkraliða á ólíkum aldri snemma árs 2017. Reynsla viðmælenda var sú að karlar gætu sinnt nærgætinni umönnun og þ...

Globally, there is a demand for basing education policy decisions and practice on solid evidence. While the same applies in Iceland, some have claimed that there is a dearth of evidence-based publications targeted at education. This article considers this claim by examining the availability and nature of evidencebased publications with a focus on u...

Greinin fjallar um hvernig staðið er að kynjajafnréttismenntun elstu barna í leikskólum. Viðtöl voru tekin við sjö leikskólakennara í elstu deildum í sex leikskólum á höfuðborgarsvæðinu ásamt því að dvelja á vettvangi til að fá innsýn í starf deildar. Úrtak var valið til að fá sem fjölbreyttastan hóp leikskóla í fleiri en einu sveitarfélagi með í r...

Rannsökuð var þátttaka nemenda í kennslustundum í níu íslenskum framhaldsskólum og var markmið þríþætt. Í fyrsta lagi að greina hvernig þátttaka nemenda birtist í kennslustundum. Í öðru lagi að skoða hvort kennsluaðferðirnar í þeim kennslustundum þar sem þátttaka nemenda var til staðar væru kennarastýrðar eða nemendamiðaðar. Í þriðja lagi að skoða...

Í þessari grein er brugðið upp mynd af kennsluaðferðum sem framhaldsskólakennarar notuðu í 130 kennslustundum og því hvaða aðferðir voru algengastar í ólíkum námsgreinum eða námsgreinasviðum. Gerð er grein fyrir ýmsum líkönum sem hafa verið notuð við að flokka kennsluaðferðir, svo sem flokkun í kennarastýrðar (e. teacher-centered) eða nemendamiðaða...

This article focuses on how students make use of different spaces in one compulsory school in Iceland and how gender is produced through activities in these spaces. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted for three months in 2016 among 8th and 9th graders at one public school in Iceland. Our analysis is based on poststructural and material theorisatio...

Tilefni þessarar greinar er umræða um mögulegan kennaraskort í grunnskólum en einkum þó staða og fækkun kennslukarla í grunnskólum. Fræðilegur bakgrunnur hennar er annars vegar rannsóknir á leiðsögn við nýliða í starfi og hins vegar er sjónum beint að kennslukörlum í starfi. Sagt er frá rannsókn þar sem rætt var við fjóra nýbrautskráða karla og þei...

Environment and School Initiatives" (ENSI) was an international network, offering a platform for cooperation among practitioners, researchers and policy makers in the fields of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development. Innovative environmental projects, Action Research, Quality Criteria for ESD schools, Teacher competencies...

Í greininni er fjallað um viðhorf foreldra til kyngervis grunnskólakennara. Rannsóknin fólst í viðtölum við tíu foreldra, fjóra karla og sex konur, sem áttu bæði dreng og stúlku í grunnskóla, og var að minnsta kosti eitt barnanna á yngsta stigi og ann að á miðstigi grunnskólans þegar viðtölin voru tekin. Viðmælendur voru spurðir um afstöðu sína til...

In 2008, new legislation was passed in Iceland on teacher education, requiring a master’s degree as a prerequisite for teaching certification for all school levels from preschools to upper secondary schools. In the same year the Iceland University of Education merged with the University of Iceland. This article maps the revision of the teacher educ...

Trends towards inclusive education have informed educational policy worldwide although the term is still controversial, and the implementation disputed. In this article, we focus on the discourse in policy documents relating to students within upper secondary schools in Iceland, both at the national level and in selected upper secondary schools. Th...

Disability studies in education (DSE) is an interdisciplinary field derived from the need to re-conceptualise special education dominated by a medical perspective on disability. In this article we identify what characterises DSE research and consider whether there is a case for arguing for a specific field of DSE in Finland and Iceland. Our analysi...

This article examines differences in the discourse from a medical towards a psychosocial approach on mental health problems in Iceland by employing a systematic comparison of the use of terms about mental health in two different time periods: during 1960–1970 and 1971–1985. This is done by analyzing articles and interviews found in newspapers, maga...

Dropout from upper secondary education in Iceland is higher than in the neighboring countries, but varied options to re-enter school have also been on offer. This article focuses on how students, who had returned to a selected upper secondary school after having quit in one or more other schools, benefited from an innovative pedagogical approach us...

The aim of this study is to investigate what characterizes the discourse on the role of the outdoor environment in young children’s learning in educational policy documents in Iceland. Policy documents, laws and regulations, national curriculum guides for preand compulsory school levels, and documents from municipalities were analyzed. A six-step a...

This article discusses the views of 25 Icelandic preschool and compulsory school teachers who were interviewed on the role of the outdoor environment in children’s 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 be...

The concept of space is gaining increased attention in studies of sexuality and gender, not least those focusing on heterosexism and heteronormativity. Such studies have demonstrated that space is sexualised, gendered and actively produced. In this article, we present the findings from an ethnographic study of two Icelandic upper secondary schools....

The aim of this article is to examine the discourse of Icelandic compulsory school teachers on inclusive education. From 1974 and onwards, the education policy in Iceland has been towards inclusion, and Iceland is considered to be an example of a highly inclusive education system with few segregated resources for students with special educational n...

Iceland was one of the first countries to collapse in the global financial crisis of 2008 and it followed the OECD suggestion by opening upper secondary schools for young jobseekers, but without increasing the number of teachers. The upper secondary school level is also in a period of educational change, as it is in many other countries nowadays. T...

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 an...

This article analyzes three reports on higher education, research and innovation policy in Iceland by using a Foucauldian discourse analysis approach. The reports were released in 2009 and 2012, emphasizing the simplification of the research and innovation system in Iceland. While on the surface the reports include practical recommendations, the st...

Sports constitute the main interest of a significant percentage of the Icelandic nation, when assessed on the basis of media coverage. In spite of the nation´s small population, Icelandic athletes have been successful at major sports events abroad and have even brought medals and trophies home. The article deals with the conclusions of an analysis...

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 creat...

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...

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 disabilitie...

Recognising that there is now a globalised educational discourse about “failing boys” circulating in the privileged nations of the global north, this article provides a comparative perspective on educational policy responses to the “boy turn” in Australia and Iceland. Specificities of the responses to the boy turn in the two societies offer interes...

This article is based on interviews with 67 primary school teachers and principals in Iceland about changes in the work of teachers during the last part of the twentieth century. The focus is on what teachers and principals understand as the most important change, how it affects teachers' work lives, and how they talk about change. The changes repo...

This paper deals with the way the vision of including children with special educational needs into their home school, constituted for instance in UNESCO's 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 t...

This article reviews didactical and psychologically based research on teachers’ work and teacher thinking, narrative educational inquiry and studies of change in teachers’ work and places them in the context of sociological theory about expert work and symbolic capital. The work of Abbott on the structure of expert work and knowledge, and Bourdieu...

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 d...

This article is based on an interview study with 14 women teachers in Icelandic primary schools (6-16 years old). It presents their experiences and opinions about the differences in teaching boys and girls as well as what they believe about their prospects and possibilities in school and in the future. It also portrays their opinions regarding the...

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 principal...

Incl. bibl., abstract. 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. T...

Incl. bibl., abstract. 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...

The article assumes that pedagogical decisions are not merely the result of the educator's personal choice or her/his serious and rational curriculum planning; rather, they occur through the interrelation of coincidences, structural issues, political and institutional discourses, and events in people's lives. The article focuses upon the politics o...

On the one hand this paper is an exploration of how suitable the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault are to explain educational reform. At another level, the paper tells a story of educational reform in Iceland in the last 25 years ‐ through the Bourdieuean and Foucauldian lenses.The paper identifies legitimating principles in the disco...

This paper considers the use of the conceptual framework of Pierre Bourdieu to study curriculum reform and the professionalization of teacher educators in Iceland. It argues that it is theoretically productive to interpret professionalism as the production of expert knowledge and learned discourse. The learned discourse of the Icelandic teacher edu...

This article examines the assumptions about resistance and leadership in selected literature on critical pedagogy and argues that the idea of resistance in critical pedagogy (as well as its siblings empowerment and voice) is rooted in traditional notions of Marxist vanguard politics that consider the trade-unionized White male working class as the...