Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2013, Page 120

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 22(2) 2013120
UppHaf kennaramenntUnar í UppeldismiðUðUm HandmenntUm
Brynjar Ólafsson (brynjar@hi.is) er aðjunkt í hönnun og smíði við Menntavísindasvið
Háskóla Íslands. Að kennaraprófi loknu lauk hann eins árs viðbótarnámi í kennslu-
fræði list- og verkgreina við Háskólann í Telemark í Noregi og MA-gráðu í uppeldis-
og menntunarfræði frá Háskóla Íslands. Meginrannsóknarsvið hans og áhugi eru
verklegar áherslur í menntun barna og unglinga, svo sem í handmenntum, útikennslu
og samþættingu námsgreina.
Teacher training in pedagogical handicraft education
in Iceland 1892–1939
abstract
The article reports the development of pedagogical handicraft (sloyd) in the training
of teachers in Iceland, from 1892 to 1938. Teacher training in pedagogical handicraft
started in 1892 in Flensborg public and high school in Hafnarfjordur, influenced by the
sloyd movement in Scandinavia. Sloyd comprises school activities which use craft-
work to produce useful and decorative objects. It is a pedagogical system of manual
training which seeks to develop the child in general, through learning technical skills
in woodworking or in sewing and knitting, and making useful objects by hand (Borg,
2006; Salomon, 1893). However, the meaning of sloyd in relation to education refers
to the debate amongst philosophers of those times about the value of craft for general
education (Borg, 2006). The purpose of sloyd was to use craftwork as a tool in general
education to build the character of the child, as well as encouraging moral behav-
iour, greater intelligence, and industriousness (Jón Þórarinsson, 1891). The ideology
of sloyd spread to different countries in the 20th century and became a basis of early
handicraft education in many countries.
Sloyd for boys and girls was introduced in the 1880s in the Nordic countries. Uno
Cygnæus in Finland and Otto Salomon in Sweden were major leaders in the develop-
ment of a systematic sloyd model for school education. They emphasized the use-
fulness of constructing objects through formal educational methodology. The model
was disseminated by Salomon through thousands of teachers from all over the world
who attended his classes. In many countries, sloyd had a noted impact on the early
development of manual training, manual arts, industrial education and technical edu-
cation. Sloyd was introduced in Iceland in 1890 and became a compulsory subject in
elementary schools in 1936.
The beginning of a pedagogical handicraft education in Iceland was based on mod-
els which arrived in Iceland with teachers who had studied in Scandinavia at teacher
training institutions for sloyd. They became pioneers in teaching pedagogical craft in
Iceland, both in public schools and in teacher training, and their influence was signifi-
cant in the development of pedagogical handicraft as a school subject in Iceland. In the
beginning, the education of teachers in pedagogical handicraft was based on a Danish