The Financial Collapse in Iceland as a Driving Force for Comprehensive Endogenous Privatization in Reykjavík: Discourse Analysis of Recent Policy Documents

• In Event: 65.039 - Understanding Education Privatization and Marketization in Canada, Iceland, Switzerland, and the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how neoliberal values have been processed and legitimized through recent education policies for preschools and compulsory schools in Reykjavík in the light of both Nordic and international research on neoliberalization. To understand the current policy landscape in Reykjavík, we look at recent policy documents by the Icelandic Ministry of Education, which propose organizational reforms to respond to ‘ineffective education’ through a focus on literacy. These reforms are justified as a way of maintaining the competitiveness of the Icelandic education system as compared to other OECD countries (PISA, 2012). The paper will also focus on how the Reykjavík municipality has translated this official and transnational policy discourse into their policies and practices, and how it has reformed the city’s educational landscape. Special attention will be given to how politicians have used insecurity and a lack of focus in the wake of the 2008 financial crises to push for: a) neo-managerial changes; b) quasi-market solutions; and c) performance assessments in reading for younger pupils, in the form of benchmarks, targets and league tables for schools.

The paper’s theoretical framework is based on Ball and Youdell’s (2007) conception of endogenous and exogenous privatization of education as part of the neoliberal ideology. The main focus in Iceland is on endogenous (internal) privatization where ideas, techniques and practices from the private sector are promoted in order to make the public sector more like businesses. The main method used is a Foucauldian discourse analysis as developed by Jóhannesson (2010). A wide range of key documents from 2010-2014 are analyzed from the Ministry of Education and the municipality of Reykjavík.

The discourse in recent policy documents has a strong focus on competitiveness and performance management and an emphasis on literacy, with a strong similarity to No Child Left Behind Act from 2001 in terms of values and epistemology. The academic references in these documents are based on quantitative research, tracing lower test results to intrinsic professional weaknesses and agitating for ‘best practice’. Silenced in these documents are the drastic changes in Iceland’s social context following the nation’s financial collapse in 2008, as well as the impact of growing inequality and poverty among children in Reykjavík and increasing geographical and institutional segregation based on social class and ethnicity.

Iceland is a good example to explore how models of the Nordic welfare system are reshaped by neoliberal policies. Because Iceland is a small community it is easy to identify and analyze the layers of power and the main actors. We argue that boundaries between the Nordic welfare model and the neoliberal model have become blurred through policies such as the recent education reforms. Following Swedish colleagues (Lundahl, Erixon Arreman, Holm, & Lundström, 2013), we suggest that components of social welfare policies, such as equal funding of state- and independent schools and absence of tuition fees, may contribute to make marketization of education appear more legitimate.


 

Authors

• Berglind Rós Magnúsdóttir, University of Akureyri

• Kristín Dýrfjörð, University of Akureyri