Jón Torfi Jónasson

Again 2021 was like previous year, defined by Covid. Academically it was relatively calm, but our only trip abroad was to NERA in Odense in November but was also connected to a very pleasant visit to Copenhagen, staying with Inge and Axel, also visiting their newly acquire summer house and seeing Jakob and Birgitte. I also attended three conferences electronically, on democratic role of the university in April held at the University of Akureyri, ECER in September and Menntakvika (the Icelandic education conference) in October. With Guðrún and Valgerður I published two chapters on Icelandic education. I also examined two excellent PhD thesis, one at Gothenburg (in March on-line) and one here at the University of Iceland. In October, Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard defended her thesis Conversation as an Ecology of learning: An analysis of asynchronous discussions within an online professional community working to develop a democratic practice in education. 

We travelled quite a lot in Iceland during 2021, played some golf and generally had a very good time with family, especially with the two granddaughters, Heiðrún Kristín and Eva Bryndís, and with the third entering the field, Laufey in September. Also trips with groups of friends, which happened to be to the south of the country this time.

For Dísa and myself the Covid-19 2020 was very different - as for most people. Academically it was OK, socially not as bad as we feared and our domestic travels were superb, being nurtured by the Icelandic nature and our friends. Many of us feel that the restrictions applied in Iceland were both moderate and sensible.

We managed a very pleasant golf trip to La Gomera in the Canaries, in February just before the pandemic put everything on hold. Two days before we were due to leave, one case had been detected in the whole of Spain, more precisely on the island of La Gomera! However, we did not experience any problems, but the week after we returned practically everything was frozen travel wise on the islands.

Our travels inland, here in Iceland, were numerous and all particularly enjoyable. One week in a summerhouse in Snæfellsnes with our daughters and granddaughters, continuing with a group of  friends to the Northeast, hiking for a week in good weather and beautiful nature, and staying with friends in Akureyri on the way back. A weekend trip with friends to Siglufjörður in early August was followed by another trip also to the east, with another group of friends, also hiking for a week in beautiful weather. We were very lucky with both the weather and the summer-long lull in the Icelandic pandemic situation. There were a number of short trips, golfing – or not - to meet friends outside Reykjavík and two delightful day tours into the highlands, inspired by friends who had not been there recently.

For some reason I got myself involved in various administrative tasks, two at the University of Akureyri, one at the University of Iceland and continuing with one at the Ministry of Education. Throughout the year, quite a number of paper reviewing still comes my way. Also requests for presentations at various venues, which I enjoy, but those later in the year were through Teams and Zoom, which I find less satisfying. I find being on the editorial advisory board of Elm Magazine inspiring.

The pandemic didn’t stop NERA in Turku in March, which I found very good, with the additional benefit of meeting with Chris, Ulpukka and the four children. I hope to write a paper with her on the expansion of HE, this year. I was involved in four presentations and went to many good sessions.

I was involved in the writing of a number of papers. One with Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir on the impact of the university level through academic subjects, which was published in 2020 and two for a series on Nordic policy documents and two for a series on the development of primary education in light of Icelandic educational policy, all of which I hope will be published this year (2021). I wrote a short opinion paper in Icelandic noting the 70-year anniversary of a good colleague, Ingvar Sigurgeirsson. I am also continuing to be involved in the research project on the role of universities in a democratic society, led by the University of Akureyri and will, I hope, continue to be associated with the effort lead by J.C. Couture and colleagues on educational futures.

January 2020 - Looking back to 2019

Academically 2019 was an interesting year - and socially very pleasant.

After the nice time with Dianne and David, Jakob and Birgitte visited us twice and J-C and Mary Lee came during the summer. Dísa and I went abroad twice with Heiða and Robert, once to Ghent and also to Sicily. We were reasonably active playing golf in Iceland, and went also to Spain, Sweden and England playing golf with our friends. We had ample and lively time with our children and two granddaughters.

After NERA in March, I examined a very good thesis, defended by Bent Sortkær on “Feedback, elevperspektiver og ulighed i skolen” at Arhus university at the beginning of April, where I also presented on the directional value of data.

The doctoral students I supervise are doing very well. Björk defended her proposal already last year and is progressing well with her very good and valuable work on school evaluation. The two other projects I supervise went successfully through the interim evaluation, one in the hands of Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard in early May, examined by professors Charles Crook and Hafdís Ingvarsdóttir, and the other run by Jakob Frímann Þorsteinsson in September, examined by professors Beth Christie and Pat Maher. I am very interested in the work og all these colleages, as I feel they are doing both novel and exciting research and I am optimistic that they will defend their final thesis soon, pehaps some in the first half of next year.

I was a partner to three presentations at ECER and presented one paper on my own. Similarly, at Menntakvika, the Icelandic research conference, I was partner to two presentations and presented one on my own. I was honoured to be asked to present at the opening of the annual Delta, Kappa Gamma international conference held in Iceland in July and at conference on educational issues held by the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities in November. I was also happy to participate as a moderator in a very interesting discussion on policy issues and cooperation between different stakeholders at a Nordic conference: Newly Qualified Teachers and Induction: A Nordic Cross-sectorial Network. In late November an Albertan group of teachers and students, lead by Jean Stiles and JC Couture visited Reykjavík schools, where they visited and lead a very successful Social innovation laboratory mainly with Icelandic and Canadian students, but also professionals.

I wrote up, in Icelandic for publication, my reflections on the directional value of data and I was asked to reflect, also for publication on a very wide-ranging and wealthy study on Norwegian upper secondary schools – a project lead by Ellen Saur at NTNU.

I was unusually busy with  peer reviews, both for Icelandic and inetrnational journals. I sit on the board for Sprotasjóður, a fund for innovative projects in Icelandic schools and on the advisory board for the Directorate of Education (Menntamálstofnun). I was asked to chair the board for the Science fund for the University of Akureyri, but this work has hardly started.

March 2019

Moving into 2019 looks good. Towards the end of 2018 I particpated with Ævar Kjartanson in ten hour long programmes under the heading Education and the future, where we invited a number of people to talk about different aspects of education on RÚV, the national broadcasting service.  See the link. I found this very interesting. But unfortunately I find my piece on inertia in education becoming gradually more relevant, even if that was not directly reflected in these discussions.

Late May last year I went to the Justice in Education (final conference in Helsinki), where I presented both with Guðrún and Pascale and in September I presented on data and its use at the Northern lights (PISA and TiMSS) seminar in Finland. In October I also particpated in meetings with our colleagues from ATA in Alberta and in the selection of a candidate at the Autonomous University in Barcelona; a task which is part of the Serra Húnter Catalalan universities project. Late in the year JC Couture visited from Alberta and early this year David Labaree and his wife Diane Churchill visited us from California and David presented on his new book, A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education. NERA 2019 was in Uppsala this time, interesting as always with a pre-conference on a Nordic project lead by UiO on the documentary backup of government policy making in education. I continued there to discuss my ideas where I question the directional value of data, being careful not to undermine its importance for understanding the world. I had two publications in 2018, one with the group lead by Ulpukka Isopahkala-Bouret at Turku, and it was also a treat to work with Lisbeth Lundahl and Anne-Lise Arnesen on the usefulness of ILSA for educational justice comparisons, especially in the Nordic context. Early in 2019 there was a chapter out with Kristjana Stella and Atli Haþórsson in the Springer book Resisting Education: A Cross-National Study on Systems and School Effects.

Ekki til

Ekki til

Þann 30. júní fór ég á eftirlaun úr prófessorsstarfi mínu við HÍ. Ég hafði starfað við HÍ frá haustinu 1977 þegar varð stundakennari og hafði að hálfu leiðsögn með verklegri kennslu í eðlisfræði og að hálfu kenndi ég hugfræði og námssálarfræði. Eftir að ég fékk fast starf við uppeldisfræði við HÍ helgaði ég mig sífellt betur ýmsum sviðum menntamála.

Sumarskóli Pestalozzi verkefnis Evrópuráðsins er metnaðarfullt á hugavert verkefni. Þar koma saman starfandi kennarar víða að frá Evrópu og ræða brýn viðfangsefni innan menntageirans. Hér fylgja nokkrir punktar sem ég studdist við í inngangserindi mínu í Bad Wildbad í Svartaskógi, 25. júní.  06 24 JTJ Pestalozzi summer school June 2017

NERA ráðstefnan í Kaupmannahöfn í mars var góð, Ulead í Banff í apríl einnig mjög góð - gott sambland fræða og praktíkur. Vorið hefur verið annasamt með verkefni í Færeyjum, Gautaborg, Osló og svo talsvert af verkefnum hér heima. Gott frí í byrjun maí. Fjölskyldumál tóku hugann í byrjun júní. Er nú (23. júní) á leið á sumarskóla Pestlozzi verkefnis Evrópuráðsins sem er í Þýskalandi. Svo tekur við undirbúningur ECER í Kaupmannahöfn í lok ágúst; á þátt í fjórum erindum. Erindi í ágúst á Akureyri og þátttaka í stefnumótun Reykjavíkur.

Verð á NERA í Kaupmannahöfn lok mars

Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir flytur pappír, sem ég er einnig skráður fyrir: Responses of upper secondary school leaders in Iceland to a new curriculum in an ostensibly decentralized system.

Erindið er byggt á doktorsverkefni hennar  og viðtölum sem við tókum við forsvarsmenn nokkurra framhaldsskóla. Hún þróar þarna mjög áhugavert sjónarmið sem sýnir að skóli getur í senn birst sem skipulagsheild (organization) og stofnun (institution). Sama á við um skólastjórnendur. Þeir geta, hver og einn, sýnst á sér samsvarandi tvær hliðar.  Mjög spennandi. Þetta sjónarhorn finnst í rannsóknum á annars konar rannsóknum, ef grannt er skoðað, en ekki endilega í skólaheiminum.

Ég held áfram að þróa hugmyndir mínar um hvernig prófræði ræður skólaþróun. Rek þarna mun á stöðu kynja, en einnig annarra hópa og sýni hve gegnumgangandi þessi þróun er á heimsvísu.

The hidden global and local dynamics of the expansion of higher education Jonasson NERA Expansion March 2017

Í erindi um stöðu ævimenntunar og starfsþróunar leitast ég við að rökstyðja að hvortveggja eigi heima í kjarna nútíma menntakerfa en ekki í jaðri þeirra eða í orðræðu um þau, eins og vill verða. En kerfin sem slík (og þeir sem eru í forsvari) virðast hvorki vilja né geta tekið slíkt til athugunar. Þó eru undantekningar, t.d. í umræðu um menntamál í Singapore.

Why formal education, lifelong learning (LLL) and professional development (PD) should be a part of the same educational discourse and thus be squarely placed at the core of the system of education (and why not).  03 NERA JTJ PD 2017 conference JTJ presentation

Samuel Abrams has a stop-over in Iceland and presents his book.

Samuel Abrams er höfundur bókarinnar Education and the Commercial Mindset sem var gefin út 2016. Þar rekur hann sögu einkavæðinga hugmynda skólastarfs í Bandaríkjunum og ræðir þróunina á Norðurlöndunum til samanburðar. Hann spyr hver séu afdrif hugmynda um einkavæðingu í bandaríska skólalkerfinu, einnig í fleiri kerfum, m.a. norrænu kerfunum. Hann styðst við ríkuleg gögn í bók sinni og dregur þá ályktun að ekki hafi verið gengið til góðs á þeirri braut sem hann ræðir. Hins vegar telur hann að ýmislegt megi læra af dæmum úr viðskiptaheiminum, sbr. grein í Los Angeles Times sem vitnað er í hér að neðan. Bók hans smellpassar inn í mikla umræðu um þróun skólastarfs í Bandaríkjunum, ekki síst nú í ljósi breyttra áherslna sem kunna að fylgja nýrri forystusveit í Bandaríkjunum. Hann mun einmitt velta því fyrir sér hvað sé í vændum undir stjórn Donalds Trump og Betty DeVos.

Drawing on his book, Education and the Commercial Mindset (Harvard University Press, 2016), Samuel E. Abrams will discuss the divergent paths taken by education policymakers in Chile, Finland, Sweden, and the United States. In addition, Abrams will address the implications of Donald Trump’s victory for schooling in the United States.

Writing in The New York Review of Books, Diane Ravitch described Education and the Commercial Mindset as “an elegant analysis of the workings of market forces in education.” Reviewing the book for Teachers College Record, Margaret Stange-Topkins described it as “exceptionally balanced, meticulously researched, and rooted in a deep understanding of the historical, cultural, and social antecedents of the widespread use of business practices and norms in education.”

This excerpt from Education and the Commercial Mindset concerning Finnish education policy was published by The Stanford Social Innovation Review. For an interview with Abrams about his book, see this column by Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post. Los Angeles Times published an opinion piece by Abrams on this January 9^th titled “Forget charter schools and vouchers — here are five business ideas school reformers should adopt”, where he critically examines and rejects the business ideas normally adopted, but suggests different ones, - from business but also from Nordic education – that should be considered.

Abrams is the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition to Education and the Commercial Mindset, his publications include a chapter on Nordic education in Utbildningsekonomi: Om lärandets värde (Natur och Kultur, 2017). Committed to sports as well as scholarship, Abrams is a veteran coach in the Ice Hockey in Harlem program.