Blog: From One Island to Another - Canada to Iceland

Though we had a very short trip just five days (November 6-10, 2023) and an additional four days of travel which saw us fly several hours in the wrong direction and added a stopover in continental Europe instead of the short hop from one island as we had originally planned  with pre-pandemic flight routes. But the journey was well worth it. Now, where virtual meetings have all but replaced in person conversations, we were reminded of the importance of “going visiting” for understanding one another an learning about how we negotiate our work spaces.

The participants of this exchange included Dr. Kathy Snow (Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) her PhD in Educational Studies student David Varis, who is also a founding member of the Faculty of Indigenous Knowledge, Education, Research, and Applied Studies (UPEI). We were warmly hosted by Edda Óskarsdóttir (School of Education, University of Iceland-HI) and Hermina Gunnþórsdóttir (Faculty of Education, University of Akureyri). Additionally while on campus at HI, we were introduced to Jakob Frímann Þorsteinsson, whose path is much like David’s of Faculty and student life combined. As well as Sue Gollifer (Faculty member) and Dean Kolbrún Pálsdóttir.

Through these conversations as well as visits to classrooms and local schools, we learned that coming from relatively small islands, though very different, provided us with some shared opportunities and challenges which we addressed in different ways.

Day One: conceptions of cooperation in education

The first thing that stood out to us, was the size of the School of Education, though the population of Iceland is double that of Prince Edward Island, the size of their School of Education was exponentially bigger, and unlike the University of Prince Edward Island, which is the only school offering Education degrees on our Island, students in Iceland could also choose to attend the smaller program offered at the University of Akureyri, which was much more similar in size and scope to our program. Prince Edward Island students can choose from many university programs away from our little island without leaving the country, which is another difference. Icelandic students have only these two choices, if they want to stay in Iceland, and it was clear the government of Iceland had made big investments to encourage students to stay at home to learn. The School of Education itself was organised into four faculties and housed in its own building on a satellite campus within Reykjavik, but it will soon be moved to a newly renovated space on main campus. Minimum requirements for teaching in Iceland include both Bachelor and Masters degrees, offered at HI, through hybrid learning. Like UPEI, we discovered HI also offers a Masters program specifically in English to cater to International students. On our tour of the campus, we were impressed with the large purpose built spaces for active learning as well as technology enhanced rooms to support video conferencing, as well as the art on the walls, which consisted of pages taken out of older student textbooks. This started our conversation on curriculum.

Because Iceland is small, and Icelandic globally is a minority language, the job of developing culturally relevant and language appropriate resources for teaching is a shared effort between the Ministry of Education, University partners and teachers. All materials are produced through a Ministry owned publication company. Upon hearing this, we became very jealous. In Canada most publication of school use materials has been outsourced to for-profit companies, who consult on needs and align materials with local curricula, producing beautiful materials that may or may not reflect the skills and ethos of those who will need to use them - the teachers. Even the act of producing the materials encouraged these three separate entities, university, school and ministry to communicate and work together in a way that I am not sure we fully accomplish in PEI, let alone Canada, where there can sometimes be a divide between those who do, those who teach, and those who regulate. When we asked how it works, our host stated, it’s because we are small, so we must work together, but PEI is small too, and we don’t operate that way. I was reminded of a book I read on our marathon of flights which compared the tulip bulb production in The Netherlands against the  North American approach. In the Netherlands innovative growers share their ideas regularly and cooperatively so they can learn together, to progress the industry. In North America, growers keep their innovations tightly locked away under patents and proprietary knowledge lest someone make a greater profit from an idea before the original innovator. Competition versus cooperation. When I asked how the two “competing” educational offerings worked together, both our hosts said, not as much as we’d like, but it was clear they did, after all they were working jointly to host us.

The other aspect of curriculum design this conversation evoked related directly to the expectations of teachers. Edda described the National Curricula as open, and reliant on the teacher as professional, therefore much autonomy was given to the classroom teacher to determine how, what and when things would be taught in relation to a relatively flexible national standard. In Canada we talk about this a lot, and look to the Nordic countries as leaders, but I am not sure we have aligned our curriculum with this concept- of teacher leader in mind. We often default back to “evidence-based decision making” which is code for standardized methods and testing- to diagnose where success is happening and where it isn’t.

Finally, the campus tour revealed something we currently at UPEI can only aspire to, the approach to inclusion. The floor of the building contained raised patterns that could be used by those with visual impairments to navigate the building. Every aspect of the building was physically accessible. That bears repeating, every aspect of the building and education was fully accessible. HI, based on community request, offers through the School of Education a truly unique program. A post high school university diploma for students with exceptional needs. As we walked through the School we saw inclusion in practice. Edda explained, part of this has arisen from the “Law of Prosperity of Children” which requires all agencies involved in the wellbeing of youth to work together as teams. This approach allows for earlier interventions with youth, and moves the focus away from diagnostics and labelling of children to discussions of the provision of children's needs. Edda described the three tiered model which is used in all levels of education, which we too have adopted in Canada, but primarily only at the public or k-12 level. 

Day Two: learning about schools connection to communities

Coming from a very small area ourselves, we were eager to visit a rural and small community school. When you live on an island you are faced daily, with connection to place, limited resources and fragility. As the ground began to rumble, we were reminded of this even more, PEI is a sandbar which is washing away little by little, while Iceland faces earthquakes and lava flows, but both populations stay where they are because we are tied to our homes, our traditions and our relations.

We left Reykjavik very early in the morning and arrived in Laugarvatn in time to spend the morning outdoors with a mixed age class of grade 5-7 students. Because of the size of the school, grades are combined and the school itself has been reconfigured in innovative ways, even taking over a nearby family home as an active classroom space. The school is unique in other ways, with a focus on virtues education as well as dedicated outdoor time for all classes as part of learning. While with the children we participated in a visit to the graveyard, where some children greeted their departed relatives, the collection of pine cones for an activity that would be conducted later in class and a sharing circle where teachers facilitated a conversation on bullying and kindness and began to read a book together.  Because our understanding of Icelandic is limited, much of the conversations of the class were explained to us on our drive home from the school, which then generated questions about outdoor education and values education, which we continued with Jacob the next evening.

In PEI, we often test our visitors by challenging them to try a raw oyster, if the guest manages to slurp the salty runny “delicacy” down, we know they are good sports and by extension good people. I am not sure if this is also a facet of islandness, the culinary test, but as our hosts offered us everything from hot springs cooked Rye bread, to Svið (Sheep's Head), Skyr (protein rich yoghourt), lamb and cod Hangikjöt (Hung & Smoked Meat) and Hákarl (Fermented Shark) we tried it all and some we liked more than others. But though eating together, and cooking together we deepened our understanding of what outdoor education meant for us and our hosts. All are tied to experiences that go beyond traditional academic learning. We shared at length different outdoor pedagogies, including critiques of our own and others practices as we sought to develop a shared definition of what is valuable in this practice. We discussed cautious risk taking, like our own experimentation with foods, but also of body kinaesthetic development in children, experimentation, inquiry and relationship building. On this last piece we discussed the Canadian Indigenous perspective on learning as ceremony.

Day three:  transformative learning through ceremony

On our final formal day, David led a group of international students through a traditional Indigenous sharing circle. This circle was very different from the one we had experienced on our day outside. The difference was founded in ceremony and Indigenous protocols around discussion in a circle. There are always tensions around ceremony when brought into formal academic settings, but the international students and their instructor Sue Gollifer welcomed us warmly. As David set up the altar and explained the parts, the four directions, and the protocols for communications the students entered the conversation with open hearts and minds. We asked one simple question of the group, for each member to position themselves and then share what an ideal vision of education would look like for them. But the answers were far from simple. As we heard from each student in turn, we heard personal histories of political strife, struggle and hope. As the students shared their visions, though using different words and narratives, there was unity in their vision- of education that allowed youth to flourish in diversity as well as build harmony with and among peoples. Both we and our hosts felt it, something important had happened in this space.

Finally, it was time to go, as we reflect on what we learned, we are definitely more ConnectED. First the ability to travel as professor and student together, learn from one another in a different way, then to join colleagues from two different universities and engage in very profound discussions of social justice around issues of inclusion, policy, land and relationships was an education we could not have obtained in another way. And  to share the love and beauty of our two very different fragile islands and what this means for our education systems has made us so very thankful to our hosts and sponsors for this project.  We imagine this visit as a new beginning not an end.

Agenda