Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2002, Page 82

ABSTRACT
A growing multicultural society is a relatively new challenge for schools and
preschools in Iceland. Children of minority groups in Iceland have generally not
done well in the school system, as it has in many respects failed to provide the
services needed for the children to integrate into the new environment or provided
them with the basis for being able to attend secondary schools. The majority of
minority group children leave secondary school in or after the first years. The reason
for this, I argue, lies at least partly in the foundations laid in the preschools.
In this article, which is based on research carried out in 55 preschools in different
parts of Iceland in 2001-2002, I will begin by discussing how preschools have app-
roached their new task of integrating children of minority groups into their schools.
Secondly, I will consider the effects of different social factors on the preschools, ele-
ments such as the social settings of the preschool, the reasons for the migrations, the
conditions of the children at the time of their arrival, such as their family and cultural
circumstances, the culture and policy of the preschools, and parental collaboration or
the lack of it. I find that the successful integration and well-being of the child is to a
large extent reliant on the interdependence of many different social and cuitural
components. Finally, I approach the question of what groundwork is necessary in
order to successfully meet the minority group children's needs in their first years of
preschool and what social and cultural factors need to be taken into account. In order
to give the minority group children a firm basis in Icelandic preschools - as well as
in the society as a whole -1 argue, it is necessary to put the preschool work - and each
child - into a larger social and cultural perspective.
Hanna Ragnarsdóttir er
lektor við Kennaraháskóla íslands