Working relationally to promote user participation in welfare services for young disabled children and their families in Iceland

Despite the avowed aims of the Icelandic legislation to provide family-centred and inclusive services, families raising disabled children commonly express their experiences of fragmented services provided more on the terms of the service providers than the users. This article is based on data derived from an on-going qualitative multi case-research in three municipalities in Iceland. The aims of the paper are 1) to identify the main contradictions that explain tensions and dilemmas within the service system as experienced by the parents, and 2) to suggest potential solutions for improving practices in accordance with family-centred inclusive policy and enhanced user participation. The cultural-historical activity theory was applied as an analytical framework. Three activities central to the wellbeing of the children and their families were identified as the unit of analysis, and contradictions within the activities were located and classified by following the expansive learning theory. Based on our findings we propose Edwards’s three ‘gardening tools’ of relational practices as innovative and appropriate concepts for the necessary changes needed. By utilising these tools, the disabled children and their families are brought to the forefront and the professionals enhance their expertise in partnership with all stakeholders.Peer Reviewe

Factors related to Icelandic student teachers’ prospective commitment to the teaching profession

Acknowledgements and funding The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments. We also thank the ReNEW, TEPEC/University of Oslo, and the University of Iceland for continued support and financial contributions to the research reported in the present study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Teacher education and school-based distance learning : individual and systemic development in schools and a teacher education programme

Ritgerðin fjallar um kennaramenntun í fjarnámi og kennaranema sem búa á landsbyggðinni og kenna í grunnskólum þar samhliða kennaranámi. Vettvangur rannsóknarinnar var annars vegar fjarnám við Kennaraháskóla Íslands þar sem fylgst var með háskólanámi kennaranema og hins vegar strandhérað þar sem lengi hafði verið kennaraskortur en þar var fylgst með kennaranemum í skólum. Tilgangur rannsóknarinnar er að varpa ljósi hvernig möguleikar kennaranema til náms og þróunar tengist annars vegar skólunum þar sem þeir kenna og hins vegar fjarnáminu. Ég kanna hvernig kennarnemar læra annars vegar starfið á vinnustað sínum og hins vegar hvernig þeir læra að vera námsmenn og þátttakendur í fjarnáminu. Einnig eru skoðaðir þeir möguleikar sem opnast með fjarnáminu fyrir kerfisþróun sem felst í samspili skólanna og kennaramenntunarstofnunar á háskólastigi. Byggt er á menningarsögulegri starfsemiskenningu sem kenningalegum grundvelli rannsóknarinnar. Kannað er hvernig kennaranemar fara á milli starfsemiskerfa til að athuga hvernig þeir kennaranemar sem starfa í skóla samhliða fjarnáminu hafa stuðning af kennslustarfinu í náminu og á sama hátt hvernig þeir hafa stuðning af fjarnáminu í kennslu sinni. Starfssemiskenningin almennt og sérstaklega kenningin um víkkað nám innan hennar gefur mér heildarramma sem nýtist annars vegar til að mynda og túlka gögn og hins vegar fyrir annars konar skilning á alhæfingarhugtakinu í rannsóknum sem tengist því hvernig niðurstöður rannsókna eru notaðar og sannreyndar með starfsfólki á vinnustöðum. Móthverfugreining, aðferð sem þróuð hefur verið undir merkjum kenningarinnar um víkkað nám, er notuð til að greina nám einstaklinga í samhengi bæði við aðstæður í skólunum þar sem þeir kenna og í fjarnáminu þar sem þeir eru nemendur Rannsóknarspurningarnar snúast um einstaklingsþróun og kerfisþróun. Rannsóknin er gerð til að leiða í ljós svæði mögulegrar þróunar fyrir kennarnema út frá aðstæðum í skólunum annars vegar og í fjarnáminu hins vegar. Einnig er spurt hverjir séu þróunarmöguleikar í skólunum og háskólanum sem stofnunum og niðurstöðurnar varpa ljósi á möguleika fyrir þróun stofnanatengsla milli þeirra. Aðferðin sem notuð var til að afla og mynda gögn byggðist á etnógrafíu. Þrír kennaranemar í þremur skólum voru valdir sem sérstök tilvik sem voru rannsökuð í þaula. Sex til sjö viðtöl voru tekin við hvern þeirra á meðan vettvangsvinnan stóð yfir og eru þau meginuppistaða rannsóknargagnanna. Til viðbótar var fylgst með þremur fjarnámskeiðum á netinu og gerði vettvangsathuganir í nokkrum staðlotum þeim tengdum. Námskeiðin voru valin út frá því að einn af þremur aðalþátttakendum í rannsókninni væri skráður í hvert þeirra og í viðtölum við þá kom fram þeirra sjónarhorn á þróun náms og kennslu í fjarnáminu. Með því að greina samspil einstaklingsþróunar og stofnanaþróunar er varpað ljósi á hvernig möguleikar til að læra að vera kennari tengjast bæði skólaþróun í grunnskólunum og þróun fjarnámsins. Möguleikar kennaranema til náms, þ.e. svæði mögulegrar þróunar fyrir þá, er í senn háð kerfisþóun í skólunum þar sem þeir kenna og í fjarnáminu í háskólanum þar sem þeir stunda nám. Þátttaka í fjarnáminu getur verið bæði hvetjandi og styðjandi fyrir kennslu kennaranemanna. En hvernig þeir gátu nýtt sér fjarnámið til stuðnings í kennslu fer eftir aðstæðum í skólunum þar sem þeir kenndu. Niðurstöðurnar gefa vísbendingu um að til þess að styrkja námsferli kennaranema í skólunum sé almennt þörf fyrir þróunarvinnu í þeim skólum þar sem þeir kenna á meðan þeir eru í fjarnáminu. Í samfélagi fjarnemanna skipti möguleiki til félagslegra samskipta miklu máli. Til að læra að vera þátttakandi í fjarnámi reyndist mjög áríðandi að læra að biðja um hjálp, þiggja hjálp og læra að vera hjálpsamur við aðra. Fjarnemar almennt, og þeir sem kenna í skólum samhliða náminu sérstaklega, eru öðruvísi viðfang í kennaramenntun en hefðbundnir kennaranemar sem læra til starfa áður en þeir byrja að kenna. Taki kennaramenntunarstofnunin ekki mið af þessu veldur það truflun í námi fjarnema og stendur í vegi fyrir þróun fjarnámsins. Aðferðafræðin sem kenningin um víkkað nám leggur til gerir ráð fyrir að niðurstöður rannsókna gagnist til að móta hugtök og tilgátur sem nota megi í þróunarvinnu. Hér á það við um þróun starfs í skólum með þátttöku skólastjórnenda, kennara, kennaranema og nemenda sem og þróun fjarnáms með þátttöku stjórnenda í háskólanum, háskólakennara og kennaranema, svo og við þróun samstarfs skóla og háskóla á stofnanagrunni.Niðurstöður benda til þess að mótun framtíðarsýnar sé mikilvæg til að stýra skólaþróun. Fyrir kennaranema sem eru að læra að vera kennarar í skólum er framtíðarsýn á líf nemenda mikilvægur hvati til að átta sig á hlutverki kennara og skóla í menntun barna. Þróun slíkrar framtíðarsýnar sprettur fram úr reynslunni af því að vera kennari, veita nemendum athygli og leitast við að koma til móts við mismunandi þarfir þeirra. Varðandi þróun fjarnámsins í kennaramenntun er lykilatriði að upplifa þörfina fyrir að þiggja hjálp og bregðast við þörfum annarra í samfélagi fjarnemanna. Kennsluaðferðir sem byggja á samvinnu styrkja næmi fyrir gildi samhjálpar í samfélagi fjarnema. Mikilvægt er að víkka áhersluna á ábyrgð, þannig að til viðbótar við einstaklingsábyrgð sé lögð áhersla á samábyrgð og niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar beina athyglinni að ábyrgð skólanna og háskólans sem stofnana. Óhefðbundið form kennaramenntunar þar sem námið á sér stað samhliða í skólum og kennaraháskóla gefur tilefni til að kanna sameiginlegt viðfangsefni þessara stofnana sem varðar miklu fyrir þróun samstarfs skóla almennt og þeirra háskóla sem bjóða kennaramenntun. Kennaramenntun er í senn akademískt og starfstengt nám þar sem bæði háskólar og skólar gegna mikilvægu hlutverki. Þar af leiðandi þarf háskólinn að viðurkenna mikilvægi skólanna í kennaranámi og á sama hátt þurfa skólarnir að læra að meta gildi þess fyrir skólaþróun að kennaramenntun verði hluti af starfsemi þeirra. Meginniðurstaða ritgerðarinnar er að kennaramenntun þarf að þróa á grundvelli stofnana-samvinnu á milli grunnskóla og háskóla. Til þess að slíkt samstarf beri árangur þarf í senn að beina sjónum að einstaklingsábyrgð og samábyrgð bæði í hópi kennaranema og háskólakennara svo og að sameiginlegri stofnanaábyrgð bæði grunnskóla og háskóla. Gildi rannsóknarinnar er tvíþætt: Annars vegar er hægt að nýta niðurstöðurnar nú þegar til að þróa fjarnámið sem óhefðbundinn valkost með samvinnu grunnskólanna og kennaradeildar háskólans. Hins vegar er hægt að taka upp aðferðafræðina sem gengið er út frá í ritgerðinni og nota hana í annarri þróunarvinnu þar sem samvinna sem tengist sameiginlegu viðfangsefni vinnustaða og háskóla er nauðsynleg.The thesis is about teacher education in a distance programme and student teachers who live in rural Iceland and work in schools. A coastal region in rural Iceland that has long suffered from a shortage of qualified teachers was selected as the site for studying schools and school-based student teachers. The distance programme for compulsory school teachers in the Iceland University of Education was chosen as the teacher education programme. The aim of the research is to reveal the possibilities for learning and development for student teachers in relation to their schools and to the programme. I explore how student teachers develop their practice as individuals in their workplace and how they learn to participate as students in the programme. Possibilities for system development inherent in the interaction of the schools and the teacher education programme are also explored. Cultural-historical activity theory is used as the theoretical framework in this study. Boundary crossing between activity systems is explored in order to find out whether school-based student teachers in the distance programme find support for from schools learning and from the programme for teaching. Activity theory in general and expansive learning theory in particular provide a comprehensive framework for generating and interpreting data, an alternative understanding of what generalization means and how the results obtained from using this framework can be used with practitioners in workplaces. Contradiction analysis, a method developed within the framework of the expansive learning theory, has been used to analyse the development of individuals in the context of the schools and of the distance programme. The research questions focus on individual and system level development. The research is done to reveal the zone of proximal development for individual student teachers in the context of the schools, for student teachers in relation to the distance programme, and for the schools and the programme as institutions and for their inter-organisational relationship. An ethnographic approach was used for accessing and generating data. Three student teachers in three schools were chosen as specific cases for further study and six or seven interviews with them during the time of fieldwork make up much of the data. I also monitored three online courses in the distance programme and attended several face-to-face on-campus sessions for observation. Each of the three main participants took part in one of the courses I studied and were interviewed to gain their perspective on the courses. The analysis reveals how developmental possibilities of individuals and groups were intertwined with developments of the systems in which they participate. The possibilities for development of the student teachers i.e. their zone of proximal development, are dependent on system development in the schools and in the programme. Participation in the teacher education programme could be both inspiring and supportive for the work of the students as teachers. The way in which the student teachers could use the programme as support for their work as teachers depended however on the conditions in the schools where they were employed. My results indicate that to support the learning trajectories of student teachers better in their home schools there is in general a need for developmental work in the schools in which they are situated. In the community of the distance learners the affordances of social mediation were imperative. In learning to participate in the programme it was of crucial importance to learn to ask for help, receive help and learn to be helpful to others. The lack of a system level response to distance student teachers in general and to school-based student teachers in particular, as a changed object in teacher education, caused disruptions and tensions, disturbing student teachers‟ learning and hindering programme development. When using the methodology of expansive learning research findings are expected to be useful in providing concepts and hypotheses that may be used in development work. This includes the development of practice in schools among school leaders, teachers, student teachers and pupils; in the university programme among programme leaders, university lecturers and students and in school-university collaboration between institutions.The findings suggest that the formation of visionary models for directing school development is important. For student teachers who are learning to be teachers in schools it is important to have a future vision of pupils‟ lives as a motive when recognising the role of teachers and schools in educating children. Development of such a future vision emerges from the experience of being a teacher, paying attention to pupils and striving to respond to their different needs. As for developing practice in university-based teacher education the key issue is to experience the need to be responsive to the needs of others and receive help from others in the community of the programme. Teaching methods based on collaboration support this kind of sensitivity. Expanding the focus on individual responsibility so that it embraces collective responsibility is important and the findings call attention to system level responsibility of the schools and the university as institutions. An alternative form for teacher education, where learning occurs simultaneously in schools and in university, opens up an opportunity for exploring a shared object that is of value for developing school-university partnership. The results reveal how teacher education incorporates both academic and practical learning in which both the university and the schools have a role to play. As a result the university should recognize the importance of schools with regard to student teachers learning to be teachers. In the same way the schools should appreciate the value for school development of including the education of teachers in their activities. A hypothesis to be worked with in inter-organisational developmental work is that in order to develop the practice of compulsory schools and the practice of the university providing teacher education, as interacting activity systems, individual and collective responsibility of students and lecturers and system level responsibility of the university and the schools as institutions is needed. The value of this research is twofold. On the one hand the findings may be used immediately in the development of the alternative model in school-university partnership. On the other hand the methodology can be adopted for use in other developmental work where collaboration on a shared object between workplaces and universities is essential

Recruitment of preschool teachers, numbers of graduates and background of preschool student teachers

Skortur á leikskólakennurum hefur verið viðvarandi á Íslandi en samkvæmt lögum eiga tveir þriðju hlutar starfsmanna leikskóla að vera leikskólakennarar. Tilgangur þessarar rannsóknar er í fyrsta lagi að meta þörf fyrir nýliðun í stétt leikskólakennara miðað við stöðu og þróun undanfarna áratugi. Í öðru lagi að skoða framvindu stúdenta í leikskólakennaranámi við Háskóla Íslands og draga upp mynd af bakgrunni þeirra og aðstæðum. Frá 1998 til 2013 fjölgaði leikskólakennurum en eftir það hefur þeim fækkað og hlutfall eldri leikskólakennara í stéttinni er að aukast. Nýliðun hefur verið lítil þar sem brautskráningum úr leikskólakennaranámi fækkaði eftir að krafist var fimm ára meistaranáms til starfsréttinda. Á sama tíma hefur leikskólabörnum fjölgað og viðverutími lengst. Af tölum um fjölda innritaðra og brautskráðra í leikskólakennaranámi við Háskóla Íslands á árunum 2015–2019 sést að innan við helmingur lýkur námi innan hefðbundinna tímamarka. Þetta bendir til þess að um mikið brottfall geti verið að ræða og/eða að framvinda stúdenta í náminu sé hæg. Í niðurstöðum spurningakönnunar, sem lögð var fyrir leikskólakennaranema á fyrsta og öðru námsári, kemur fram að óhefðbundnir stúdentar eru í meirihluta, þ.e. þeir eru yfir 25 ára aldri þegar þeir hefja nám, eru í sambúð og með börn á framfæri. Langflestir stunduðu námið í fjarnámi og unnu í leikskóla með námi og um helmingur í fullu starfi eða því sem næst. Um tveir þriðju hlutar leikskólakennaranemanna notuðu 20 klst. eða minna á viku í námið og þegar komið var á annað námsár höfðu 40% þátttakenda lokið sem samsvarar fullu námi á fyrsta námsári, sem bendir til að námstími til að ljúka fimm ára háskólanámi verði langur. Niðurstöðurnar benda til að vandinn skýrist af aðstæðum stúdenta sem gera það að verkum að þeir hafa ekki nægan tíma til að sinna náminu. Knýjandi er að finna leiðir til gera fleirum kleift að ljúka leikskólakennaranámi.During the past two decades, the demographics of preschool children in Iceland have changed, and their school days have lengthened. The number of children aged two and younger as well as the number of children with non-Icelandic mother tongues or with special needs has increased significantly. These changes have required increased staff in preschools. This research aims to (1) assess the current and future (over the next decade) need for preschool teachers in Iceland, based on information from Statistics Iceland and (2) seek explanations for preschool student teachers’ slow academic progress and low graduation rates at the University of Iceland. This study begins by providing contextual information on the historical development of preschool teacher education in Iceland, and the current situation in Iceland is compared to legislation on preschool teacher education in Europe, with a special focus on the Nordic countries. From 1998 to 2018, only 28% of preschool staff working with children in Iceland were licensed preschool teachers; by law, two-thirds of staff must be licensed. Attention is also drawn to the lack of recruitment of young preschool teachers. Agecomposition statistics show that the proportion of older teachers has increased in the past 20 years; the number of teachers aged 60 years and over has increased from 1.5% of preschool teachers in 1998 to 17% in 2018. This is a cause for concern, given that the number of preschool education graduates has decreased significantly since the enactment of a law that requires teachers to have graduated with a five-year master’s degree instead of a three-year bachelor’s degree in preschool teacher education. Another concern is that preschool student teachers progress slowly in their studies, and graduation rates are quite low in the undergraduate and graduate programmes. Too few of those who graduate from the B.Ed. programme in preschool teacher education enter the master’s programme. The majority of students who graduate with the required M.Ed. enter the programme with a bachelor’s degree in another subject. To seek explanations for students’ slow academic progress and low graduation rates, questionnaires were administered to preschool student teachers in their first year of study at the University of Iceland in the autumn of 2018 and 2019 and in their second year of study in 2019. Most respondents were women, and more than half were over the age of twenty-five; the majority were living with a partner and had children in their care. Most participants were ‘non-traditional’ university students with responsibilities outside their studies. Around 80% were in the distance education programme and worked in preschools during their studies, and 83% had worked for two years or more in a preschool before entering the programme. About half the participants worked full time or close to full time during their studies, and about two-thirds spent 20 hours or fewer per week on their studies. By the second year of their studies, 40% of the participants had completed the equivalent of one year of full-time study. Slow academic progress at the beginning of their studies indicates that students need more time than expected to complete their degree. The student teachers’ backgrounds and situations demonstrated that they lack enough time to dedicate to their studies. Therefore, strategies are needed to accommodate the preschool student teachers’ circumstances in the organisation and implementation of the pre-school teacher education programme. Development of technology for distance learning makes it is possible to offer teaching in real time so that students have the opportunity to participate in lessons from their workplace. Negotiation between universities and those who run preschools is important. There might be conflicts of interest when preschool student teachers have roles and obligations as staff members in preschools. Recent efforts have aimed at establishing co-operation with municipalities to encourage students to pursue their studies in parallel with their work in pre-schools, which will hopefully lead to more people completing their degrees.Peer reviewe