Uppeldi og menntun - 01.06.2015, Qupperneq 32

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 24(1) 201532
AðdrAgAndi þemAnáms í KennArAhásKólA íslAnds
UM HÖfUnDinn
Loftur Guttormsson (loftur@hi.is) er prófessor emeritus við Menntavísindasvið
Háskóla Íslands. Hann lauk licence-ès-lettres-prófi í sagnfræði og félagsfræði frá
Parísarháskóla (la Sorbonne) 1964 og dr. phil.-prófi í sagnfræði frá Háskóla Íslands
1990. Loftur hefur kennt sagnfræði og félagsfræði á öllum skólastigum nema leik-
skólastigi, lengst af við Kennaraháskóla Íslands. Hann stundar rannsóknir á sviði
félagssögu, menningarsögu og uppeldis- og skólasögu.
The thematic approach introduced at the University
College of Education in Iceland: Conflicts in the
development of teacher education 1975–1978
aBstraCt
This article is a historical study of conflicts between student teachers and the school
authorities at the University College of Education (UCE) in Iceland, resulting in the
introduction of a thematic learning approach (þemanám) during the first semester of
the school year 1978–1979. This implied a major change in teacher education in Ice-
land at the time. The source material for this study consists mainly of documents,
internal publications and personal notes.
Around 1970 the Icelandic Ministry of Education aimed at simultaneously reform-
ing the system of compulsory education and teacher education. The reform project
was led by the Department of Educational Research and Development (DERD) at the
ministry. New legislation on the UCE was passed in 1971, but the new Law on Com-
pulsory Education was not passed until 1974 (Lög um grunnskóla).
The UCE replaced the former Teacher Training College (TTC) which had been
established in 1963 as a four-year educational program at the upper secondary school
level. In theory, the upgrading of teacher education to university level in 1971 consti-
tuted an important change (Gyða Jóhannsdóttir, 2001). However, during the next few
years UCE had to run a series of study programs at upper secondary school level for
students who were already enrolled at the TTC. Until 1975 the students involved in
these programs outnumbered those enrolled in UCE’s B.Ed. program.
The simultaneous running of two different study programs meant that the faculty
members had to divide their teaching between secondary school and university
levels. These first faculty members had all been serving as tenured teachers at the
TTC; hence they were not likely to develop professional identities as university staff.
These circumstances affected the UCE curriculum which these faculty members wrote
during their first years in office. Furthermore, with no less than ten obligatory subjects
on the curriculum during the first two semesters of the B.Ed. program – electives not
being introduced until the third semester – the students felt that they were pursuing
their education at approximately the same school level as before.