Nýliðun leikskólakennara, fjöldi brautskráðra og bakgrunnur leikskólakennaranema

During the past two decades, the demographics of preschool children in Iceland have changed, and their school days have lengthened. The number of children aged two and younger as well as the number of children with non-Icelandic mother tongues or with special needs has increased significantly. These changes have required increased staff in preschools. This research aims to (1) assess the current and future (over the next decade) need for preschool teachers in Iceland, based on information from Statistics Iceland and (2) seek explanations for preschool student teachers’ slow academic progress and low graduation rates at the University of Iceland. This study begins by providing contextual information on the historical development of preschool teacher education in Iceland, and the current situation in Iceland is compared to legislation on preschool teacher education in Europe, with a special focus on the Nordic countries. From 1998 to 2018, only 28% of preschool staff working with children in Iceland were licensed preschool teachers; by law, two-thirds of staff must be licensed. Attention is also drawn to the lack of recruitment of young preschool teachers. Agecomposition statistics show that the proportion of older teachers has increased in the past 20 years; the number of teachers aged 60 years and over has increased from 1.5% of preschool teachers in 1998 to 17% in 2018. This is a cause for concern, given that the number of preschool education graduates has decreased significantly since the enactment of a law that requires teachers to have graduated with a five-year master’s degree instead of a three-year bachelor’s degree in preschool teacher education. Another concern is that preschool student teachers progress slowly in their studies, and graduation rates are quite low in the undergraduate and graduate programmes. Too few of those who graduate from the B.Ed. programme in preschool teacher education enter the master’s programme. The majority of students who graduate with the required M.Ed. enter the programme with a bachelor’s degree in another subject. To seek explanations for students’ slow academic progress and low graduation rates, questionnaires were administered to preschool student teachers in their first year of study at the University of Iceland in the autumn of 2018 and 2019 and in their second year of study in 2019. Most respondents were women, and more than half were over the age of twenty-five; the majority were living with a partner and had children in their care. Most participants were ‘non-traditional’ university students with responsibilities outside their studies. Around 80% were in the distance education programme and worked in preschools during their studies, and 83% had worked for two years or more in a preschool before entering the programme. About half the participants worked full time or close to full time during their studies, and about two-thirds spent 20 hours or fewer per week on their studies. By the second year of their studies, 40% of the participants had completed the equivalent of one year of full-time study. Slow academic progress at the beginning of their studies indicates that students need more time than expected to complete their degree. The student teachers’ backgrounds and situations demonstrated that they lack enough time to dedicate to their studies. Therefore, strategies are needed to accommodate the preschool student teachers’ circumstances in the organisation and implementation of the pre-school teacher education programme. Development of technology for distance learning makes it is possible to offer teaching in real time so that students have the opportunity to participate in lessons from their workplace. Negotiation between universities and those who run preschools is important. There might be conflicts of interest when preschool student teachers have roles and obligations as staff members in preschools. Recent efforts have aimed at establishing co-operation with municipalities to encourage students to pursue their studies in parallel with their work in pre-schools, which will hopefully lead to more people completing their degrees.