Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1979 Icelandic Education: Tradition and Modernization in a Cultural Perspective George Hanson Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Hanson, George, "Icelandic Education: Tradition and Modernization in a Cultural Perspective" (1979). Dissertations. 1785. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1785 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Copyright © 1979 George Hanson ICELANDIC EDUCATION; TRADITION .AND MODE~~IZATION IN A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE by George Hanson A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Education of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education January 1979 In Memory of my Mother VIGDIS GUDMUNDSDOTTIR HANSON December 9, 1896-Apri1 10, 1978 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Grateful acknowledgment is extended to many--in the United States and in Iceland--who contributed to this study and made it possible. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Rosemary v. Donatelli, my major advisor, as well as to Dr. Gerald L. Gutek and Dr. John M. Wozniak who also read this paper and made valuable suggestions. I also acknowledge the assistance rendered my by Mr. Vilhjalmur Bjarnar, Curator of the Fiske Icelandic Collec­ tion at Cornell University and to Dr. Finnbogi Gudmunds­ son, Director of the National Library of Iceland. Numerous individuals in the Ministry of Culture and Education in Reykjavik were always willing to assist me in my research. Special thanks is due Hordur Larusson, Direc­ tor of the Division of Educational Research and Development. I am also indebted to many principals and teachers in Ice­ land. Special thanks is due Joan Allman for patience in typing the manuscript. My greatest debt is owed to my mother \vho always encouraged me in my endeavors and in whom all the best of Icelandic culture was found. Shortly before the completion iii of this study, she died. To her memory this work is ded­ icated in grateful thanks for the heritage she has passed down to me. iv PR;EFACE Materials for this dissertation were gathered at Cornell University where the resources of the Fiske Ice­ landic Collection, the largest library of Icelandic ma­ terials in North America, were made avc:.ilable for my use. Additional research was conducted in Iceland. Materials were gathered at The Ministry of Culture and Edu­ cation, The National Library of Iceland and various educa­ tional institutions. This was my fifth visit to Iceland, or perhaps more correctly, my fourth visit, because during the academic year 1961-62, I resided in Iceland as a teacher at the school operated by the United States Naval Station at Keflavik. During that year in Iceland, I visited numerous schools and made the acquaintance of sev­ eral educational leaders and teachers. This dissertation is the result, therefore, of a long-standing interest in education in Iceland. v VITA The author, George Hanson, is the son of George William and Vigdis (Gudmundsdottir) Hanson. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. His elementary education was obtained in the public schools of Chicago and secondary education at Lake View High School, Chicago, Illinois, where he graduated in 1952. He attended The University of Illinois from 1952 to 1954 and Northwestern University from 1954 to 1956, and from where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts (June, 1956) with a major in English. He attended The University of Chicago from 1960 to 1963, and from where he received the degree of Master of Arts in Library Science (August, 1963) . / While at Loyola University, he was selected a Loyola University Fellow for the 1977-78 academic year. From 1957 to 1961 he was a teacher in the public schools of Chicago. During the 1961-62 school year he was a teacker in Keflavik, Iceland. In 1964 he became a librar- ian at Mayfair Junior College (now Truman College) in Chicago. He currently is chairman of the Learning Resources Center of Truman College. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii PREFACE v VITA vi LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS X CONTENTS OF APPENDICES xi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. FROM THE AGE OF SETTLEMENT TO THE REFORMATION, 874-1550 •..•. 12 III. FROM THE REFORMATION TO HOME RULE, 1550-1904 . • . • • . 51 IV. FROM HOME RULE TO INDEPENDENCE, 1904-1944 . • • . 94 V. THE REPUBLIC--THE PROBLEM OF TRADITION AND MODERNIZATION; CULTURAL CHANGE AND CULTURAL PRESERVATION . • . 120 The Historical and Social Background . 120 Icelandic Culture in a Multi-Culture Society . • . • • . 136 Theories of Cultural Preservation ••• 157 VI. EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS, 1944-1977 . 175 The Educational System • . 17 5 Pre-School Education . 197 Primary Education . • . 20 0 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS.--Continued Chapter Page Secondary Education . 215 Adult Education .....•. 252 Teacher Training . 257 Higher Education . • . • . 266 VII. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND CULTURAL FUTURE 286 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 298 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Population of Iceland, 1801-1973 96 2. Percentage of Urban and Rural Population of Iceland, 1801-1973 . • • . 100 3. Population of Reykjavik Area, 1801-1973 102 4. Courses Taught in the Lower Division of the Reykjavik Grammar School . 107 5. Courses Taught in the Upper Division of the Reykjavik Grammar School . 108 6. The Curriculum of the Teachers Training School of Iceland . 114 7. Inflation in Iceland, Other OEDC Countries and the United States, 1950-1977 Per­ centage Increase in Consumer Prices in Previous Year . 128 8. Books Published in Iceland, 1887-1966 . 143 9. Ministers of Culture and Education in Iceland 1944- . • . • . 177 10. Student Enrollment, Teachers and Schools in Iceland, 1971-72 . • . 196 11. Primary School Curriculum, 1960 . 202 12. The Curriculum of the Compulsory School, 1977-1978 . .......... 209 13. Fields of Specialization and Their Require­ ments, Hamrahlid Grammar School .... 224 14. Number of Students Enrolled at the University of Iceland, 1911-1977 279 ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Map of Iceland 13 2. The School System of Iceland, 1946-1974 187 3. Proposed Coordination of Secondary Educa- tion, 1977 .............. 247 X CONTENTS OF APPENDICES Appendix Page A. CHRONOLOGY 315 B. SELECTED GLOSSARY OF ICELANDIC EDUCATIONAL TERM.S • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 341 c. RECENT EDUCATIONAL LAWS OF ICELAND 347 I. A Law Concerning the Educational System . 348 II. A Law Concerning the Compulsory School (Abridged) . 351 xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION For over eleven hundred years Icelanders have lived in Iceland--far to the north at "the gates of the world." They have preserved through centuries of poverty and great 1 hardships in a land" .•• only just habitable" a cultural heritage going back to the age of settlement. They created and preserved a literature which, according to Dr. Gabriel Turville-Petre of Oxford University" ... became the rich­ est and most varied of medieval Europe." 2 The cultural heritage which has come down to this generation is primarily a literary one. Painting and music are only recent developments. There are no ancient build- ings in Iceland, the oldest being only a few hundred years at the most--and they are very few. Yet almost every farm in Iceland has a historical heritage. Many such places still bear names which go back a thousand years and are often associated with figures mentioned in the sagas. 1sigurpur Thorarinsson, Island/Iceland (Munich: Hannes Reich Verlag, 1955) , unpaged. 2Gabriel Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Lit­ erature (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1953), p. 1. 1 2 Dr. Gylfi Th. Gislason, Minister of Culture and Education from 1956 to 1971 and one who has been deeply con- cerned about the preservation of the cultural heritage in an age of rapid social and technological change, has summed up this heritage as follows: The history of Iceland is unique in the history of western nations. It is not special because it is the history of one of the smallest nations inhabiting an independent modern state in our world. What makes it unique is the alteration there has been between splendor and humiliation, destitution and prosperity. At one time Iceland enjoyed freedom and self determination, while at another she had to suffer oppression and loss of liberty. The nature of the country, which enchants the people with its beauty and majesty, has at times been its most sworn enemy. But what is most remarkable about the history of Iceland is that it is not solely one of colonization, the establishment of an unusual state, its fall and restoration, a struggle against foreign domination and for improved welfare. It is pri­ marily a story of spiritual aspiration, of the splendid medieval culture of an independent and prosperous nation, of centuries-old juxtaposition of poverty and poetry, of amazingly varied modern culture in a small, sovereign technological state. The most notable thing about Iceland's history is that early in the Middle Ages there should have arisen in the country a special national identity, that there should have been preserved a special language and created a culture, which is Icelandic and has for nearly a thous­ and years had its own special characteristics. From all of this has arisen a culture, which is part of the flesh and blood of earlier generations and of them themselves, and which affords enjoyment and happi­ ness.3 The keen awareness of the cultural heritage is fur- ther appraised by Dr. Kristjan Eldjarn, President of Iceland 3 ' Gylfi Th. Gislason, The Problem of Being an Ice- lander: Past, Present and Future, trans.