Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.06.2012, Page 56

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Gísli Þorsteinsson og Brynjar Ólafsson
education and technical education in
many countries, including the UK (Ben-
net, 1926). Several Icelandic teachers went
to join Salomon in his courses and started
their careers as Sloyd teachers in Iceland.
The first of these was Vilhelmina Odds-
dottir, who was supported by Icelandic
educators living in Cambridge, England.
She was also supported by Salomon as he
wanted to spread his ideas to Iceland.
Sloyd for boys and girls was introduced
in the 1880s in the Nordic countries. It
was however, first introduced in Iceland
in 1890 by the first Icelandic educator Jon
Thorarinsson and became a compulsory
subject in the beginning of 1900 (Brynjar
Ólafsson, 2009). Different countries gave
the subject different names though the
content was the same. For example, in
Iceland the teaching of Sloyd was introdu-
ced under the name ´school industry´ and
was later named ‘smidi’ (Jón Þórarinsson,
1891).
The article first defines and explains the
term Sloyd in the context of pedagogical
craftwork and then describes the methods
the authors used to research the material
for the article. Next the article illustrates
Salomon’s school in Nääs and his system
for teaching Sloyd craftwork as a peda-
gogical approach towards general educa-
tion. Subsequently the stories of the initial
teachers that studied in Nääs are reported.
Finally the authors present a summary
and draw their conclusions in the context
of the value of craftwork in and for educa-
tion, both in the past and in the present.