Traditions and transitions: Inside the Iceland College of Education 19401962

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Traditions and transitions Inside the Iceland
College of Education 1940-1962

• Allyson Macdonald and Guðrún Kristinsdóttir
• Iceland University of Education
• Umeå, Sweden, June 2002

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Number of students and staff

• Students rose in number from around 20 to over 30
  during the period
• There were 9 permanent teachers

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Seven frames
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Content
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Assessment

• Traditional oral and written examinations
• External examiner
• Certificate
• .(she) has completed the teachers examination
  and now leaves the school with this documentary
  evidence that (she) has achieved a general level
  of education and psychological development which
  is needed to accept a teaching post with any
  primary school in the country.

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Learning-as-achievement

• I felt in my first teaching job that I was well
  prepared to teach reading and writing, and
  biology and geography. And one wasnt
  apprehensive I didnt need to do a lot to be
  prepared
• We had probably never really acknowledged and yet
  never believed other than that we were able to
  teach in any sort of primary school And later
  students had far more teaching practice but said
  that they werent able to teach this or that

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Students why go to the ICE?

• Why did young people apply?
• Friends
• Long summer holiday
• Salary
• No other options for upper secondary education
  this became increasingly important during this
  period

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Summary of students
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Entry requirements

• Oral and written examinations test of knowledge
• More stringent requirements in the law from 1947
  not implemented until the 1950s good candidates
  were not applying for admission

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Who were the teachers?
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Outside the classroom

• Almost no research
• Some writing of teaching materials
• Some in prominent positions in official
  committees
• Active in public service/voluntary work
• Some in the cultural world theatre, drama,
  music, radio
• Leading sports coaches
• The teacher with a Ph.D., second youngest with
  tenure, becomes editor of the teachers journal
  in 1955 and starts to become more visible

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The principal a lifes work

• Born 1892, student at the college 1913, highly
  regarded teacher from 1921
• Principal 1929-1962, lived in the college
  apartment for over thirty years
• Poet and translator
• Deeply troubled by events in Europe

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The young psychologist

• Joined the college in 1941 at age 25
• By mid-1950s active in educational matters
• Takes over as principal in 1962
• Is the principal in 1971

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The building 1908-1962

• Shortcomings pointed out on opening day by first
  principal
• No experimental school, no gymnasium, no
  dormitory
• Promises 1944-46
• Committee 1951
• New building 1962

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Transitions course and students

• Entry requirements Student body changed
  considerably over time
• Exit requirements Task ahead for graduates was
  changing
• A department of education had been set up at the
  University of Iceland
• Expectations for potential of research and
  development grew
• Unions asking for change

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Traditions teachers

• Little change in course content and a traditional
  view of teaching within the college
• Teaching staff very stable
• Teachers had a life outside college

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Culture and continuity the building and the
principal

• Culture within the college who controlled it?
  What should be preserved?
• Apparent lack of options within the physical
  constraints
• The principal nostalgic did not find it easy to
  accept change but participated
• The young psychologist seemed more active in
  preparing change

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• 1958
• The world war is long since finished. But
  the college surroundings have never again enjoyed
  the sense of peace and calm, which prevailed in
  earlier times. The airport is still in place,
  and one of the main traffic roads in the town now
  passes in front of the college. The time is
  past, when few if any needed to pass the college
  other than students and teachers and old Henry
  from Greenborg with his wheelbarrow on his way to
  town or on his way back.

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Much later

• Here the talk on the ICE is concluded by Guðrún

• Here I return with a short summary of recent
  developments

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Recent history and the research requirement

• 1998

IUE University level Research
Social therapists Secondary
Pre-school teachers Secondary
Physical education teachers Secondary
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Defining research and development

• Have we gone too far in allowing others to define
  what teacher educators do?
• Could it be that there is a lack of knowledge and
  understanding about the nature and activities of
  teacher education?
• Is it absolutely necessary that we are measured
  according to the standards which others set for
  us?

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Scholarly activity

• Discovery
• Integration
• Application, practice
• Teaching
• Boyer, E.L. 1990. Scholarship reconsidered.
  Priorities of the professoriate. The Carnegie
  Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching )

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Consistency in the activities of university
scholars

• Could we not define ourselves
• as learners?
• as part of a learning community?
• Should we not approach teaching and research in a
  consistent manner?