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Special Education Today in Iceland SPECIAL EDUCATION TODAY IN ICELAND Gretar L. Marino´ sson and Do´ ra S. Bjarnason ABSTRACT The purpose of the chapter is to give an overview of special education in Iceland, historically and with reference to modern use of terms, research, policy, legal trends and funding. Recent data is provided on demographic developments amongst children in Iceland and detailed account is given of practices in schools, including collaboration with parents and teacher education. Finally some issues and challenges are discussed that still remain to be solved with respect to meeting the special needs of students in school. One of the findings is that only 1.3% of students attend special schools and special classes and that the term special education has out- lived its usefulness except perhaps in the context of the three segregated special schools that still remain in the country. Official papers have replaced it with the term special support. Despite a diversity of views and practices the main implication is that a new model of education is required, in line with that proposed by Slee where the needs of individuals are served in all schools and the binary thinking related to regular versus special education is no longer necessary. Special Education International Perspectives: Practices Across the Globe Advances in Special Education, Volume 28, 271À309 Copyright r 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0270-4013/doi:10.1108/S0270-401320140000028016 271 Copyright © 2014. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 5/22/2017 5:04 AM via NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF ICELAND AN: 777974 ; Burkhardt, Sandra A., Sharma, Umesh, Obiakor, Festus E., Rotatori, Anthony F., Bakken, Jeffrey P..; Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe Account: s8883431 272 GRETAR L. MARINO´ SSON AND DO´ RA S. BJARNASON INTRODUCTION Iceland: Country and Nation Given its geographical size of 100,000 square kilometres and a population of just one third of a million inhabitants, Iceland is one of the most spar- sely populated country and smallest independent nation states in the world. The island’s location in the middle of the north Atlantic makes it relatively isolated but also well situated for the interception of cultural currents from both sides of the Atlantic. Icelanders have a distinct language and culture, which historically is closely linked to other Nordic nations. Reykjavik, the capital city, is by far the largest municipality with a population of about 120,000. At the time of the establishment of the first public schools around 1850, Iceland was a Danish dependency and one of the poorest countries in Europe, its economy being largely based on farming and fishing. The popu- lation, numbering approximately 70,000, over 80% of whom lived in rural areas, was homogenous but literate (Guttormsson, 1983). The country gained independence step by step in the late 19th and early 20th century and became a republic with parliamentary democracy in 1944. Executive power lies with the cabinet formed usually by coalition of two or more poli- tical parties. Iceland took a leap forward in the 20th century to become an urban, highly modern, capitalistic market society; from the 1960s it has ranked as one of the 10À15 most affluent nations within the OECD (Jo´ nsson, 2009). Communication with other nations has always been dynamic, particularly with the Nordic states but also elsewhere. Economic prosperity after the Second World War was thus largely based upon transactions with Eastern Europe, Northern America, the European Union and, lately, Japan and China. More recently the bank crisis, the fall of the krona and the currency embargo since 2008 has seriously affected both public and private spending and set the nation’s economy back several years. EDUCATION IN ICELAND For centuries children were educated in their homes by their parents and later by peripatetic teachers. This system continued well into the 20th cen- tury in rural areas. The history of public schools in Iceland is relatively Copyright © 2014. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 5/22/2017 5:04 AM via NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF ICELAND AN: 777974 ; Burkhardt, Sandra A., Sharma, Umesh, Obiakor, Festus E., Rotatori, Anthony F., Bakken, Jeffrey P..; Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe Account: s8883431 Special Education Today in Iceland 273 short, compared to that of neighbouring countries, spanning merely 160 years (Guttormsson, 2008). The first Education Law on public schooling was passed in 1907 followed by subsequent Education Acts in 1926, 1936 and 1946. However, it was not until the 1974 Education Act that all chil- dren, including those with special needs and disabilities, were required to attend school. Legislation and curricula in the 20th century reflect continu- ing efforts towards increased equality between children in different parts of the country, of different gender and of varying learning ability. Recent PISA results show that this endeavour has borne fruit in relative homoge- neity of school performance, at least at the compulsory school level (Halldo´ rsson, O´ lafsson, & Bjo¨ rnsson, 2013). The educational system is structured at four levels of schooling: • The preschool (‘playschool’ as it is called in Iceland), ages 2À5 years. Operated by local authorities. • The compulsory school (‘basic school’), ages 6À16 years. Operated by local authorities. • The upper secondary school (‘continuing school’), ages 16À20 years. Operated by the state. • Universities and adult education provision. Independent but financed largely by the state. This chapter deals with special education at the three first school levels, the preschool, the compulsory school and the upper secondary school. The university level is mostly left out, although students with a variety of dis- abilities are admitted for university study. Readers interested in more detailed information about the extent to which Iceland’s seven universities cater to students with special needs are referred to Stefa´ nsdo´ ttir’s (2013) comprehensive description. The majority of Iceland’s public schools operate under municipalities (preschools and compulsory schools) or the state (upper secondary schools and universities). Only a few schools are privately run with 70% contribu- tions from the municipalities or the state. Students at compulsory schools are the only ones obliged to attend school but 95% of children attend preschools and up to 95% of children attend upper secondary schools although around 35% discontinue their studies before completion (Statistics Iceland, 2013). Today the annual public expenditure on educa- tion per student is slightly above the average for 21 Europe Union (EU) nations at preschool, primary school and upper secondary school levels but considerably lower at the tertiary/university level. The same applies when compared to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Copyright © 2014. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 5/22/2017 5:04 AM via NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF ICELAND AN: 777974 ; Burkhardt, Sandra A., Sharma, Umesh, Obiakor, Festus E., Rotatori, Anthony F., Bakken, Jeffrey P..; Special Education International Perspectives : Practices Across the Globe Account: s8883431 274 GRETAR L. MARINO´ SSON AND DO´ RA S. BJARNASON Development (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2000) average. SPECIAL EDUCATION IN ICELAND A review of the literature reveals little consensus on the meaning of the term ‘special education’, what it should contain, where it should ideally be practiced and how (Bjarnason, 2010b). Does the term refer to location, pedagogic methods and contents, the professionals who carry it out or to the additional resources needed to implement the special needs education? Indeed the term ‘special support’ is now used in official documents in Iceland in place of the term ‘special education’ that is seen to have outlived its usefulness except in the context of segregated special schools. Although special education may strictly be understood as referring to what happens within the education system, the other side of the coin is what happens within the child. The term impairment is used here in the ‘individual’ or ‘medical’ theoretical perspective about what happens within the child (WHO, 1980). The term ‘disability’ is similarly debated but is used here as an over-arching term for all major barriers that prevent an individual from participating in society (and school), including personal impairments, social structures, physical structures and social prejudices. The term ‘special educational needs’ is used here to refer to all educational needs that the school does not manage to adjust to and meet in its daily work. This term overlaps with disability at the same time as it also extends beyond it to ‘cover those who are
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