Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson
Biographic Data
| ID | 357601 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ingólfur Ásgeir |
| FAMILY NAME | Jóhannesson |
| SIGNATURE | JÓHANNESSON I Á |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Iceland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8212-5944 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Paradox of Progress and Accessibility
In the rapidly evolving world of technology, it is crucial to keep track of the progress of digital transformation and its impact on marginalized communities. This study examines Icelandic governmental digital policies through historical discourse analysis, exploring the ways in which digital transformation initiatives are conceptualized within a neoliberal rationality that emphasizes efficiency, competitiveness, and individuality and how this al…
Now We Just Have to Take a Step Back”
The Icelandic preschool system provides education and childcare services for children, thereby enabling Icelandic women to participate extensively in the labor market. This participation is a key factor in maintaining the country’s longstanding position as the most gender‐equal nation in the world. However, in recent years Iceland’s preschool system has faced significant strain due to a shortage of childcare options for children aged 12 months to…
Police education reform in Iceland
In recent decades, in many countries, police education has shifted from vocational training schools run by the police to universities. In Iceland, in 2016, basic police education was reformed, the National Police Academy was closed, and a new university programme was created. In this article, we analyse the discourse in two reports from 2014 and 2015 and two legal texts from 2016 leading up to this education reform. A six-step approach to discour…
Natural disciplinarians or learning from the job? The first two years of seven male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools
This article presents an interview study with seven newly-graduated male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools. We interviewed them five times during their first two years of teaching. The focus is on the ways in which the gender of the novice teachers mattered in the expectations that they experienced and how these expectations interacted with the professional demands of being a teacher. The interviews reveal that hegemonic masculinity ideas …
The Discourse of Drama
In this article, we consider how girls are positioned in school by what we have chosen to call the discourse of drama. The widely held notion that Nordic girls have it all along with this drama discourse are seen to be the key narratives that reinforce a hegemonic form of girlhood. This ethnographic study focuses on the relations of students between the ages of 13 and 15 in the light of uninformed school staff-member practices. Our findings sugge…
Walls, seats and the gymnasium
This article focuses on how students make use of different spaces in one compulsory school in Iceland and how gender is produced through activities in these spaces. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted for three months in 2016 among 8th and 9th graders at one public school in Iceland. Our analysis is based on poststructural and material theorisation in a country with one of the most progressive curricula in the world. It indicates that the school…
Nordic perspectives on disability studies in education
Disability studies in education (DSE) is an interdisciplinary field derived from the need to re-conceptualise special education dominated by a medical perspective on disability. In this article we identify what characterises DSE research and consider whether there is a case for arguing for a specific field of DSE in Finland and Iceland. Our analysis is based on a review of 59 studies published by Finnish and Icelandic scholars during the time per…
Medical approach and ableism versus a human rights vision
Trends towards inclusive education have informed educational policy worldwide although the term is still controversial, and the implementation disputed. In this article, we focus on the discourse in policy documents relating to students within upper secondary schools in Iceland, both at the national level and in selected upper secondary schools. The study is situated within the Disability Studies in Education paradigm. A six-step historical disco…
Masculinity strategies of young queer men as queer capital
This article explores how 11 gay and bisexual young men in Iceland, whom we interviewed, have adopted different strategies to deal with the reality of Icelandic masculinity manifestations in the early 2010s. Bourdieuean views of explaining their ideas as social strategies were utilized to interpret how they had adopted behaviors, looks, and ideas in tact with, or contrary to, the hegemonic, heteromasculine views of how men are supposed to act, lo…
Meaningful education for returning-to-school students in a comprehensive upper secondary school in Iceland
Dropout from upper secondary education in Iceland is higher than in the neighboring countries, but varied options to re-enter school have also been on offer. This article focuses on how students, who had returned to a selected upper secondary school after having quit in one or more other schools, benefited from an innovative pedagogical approach used in the school. The article draws upon interviews, in which the interviewees expressed their pleas…
Curriculum, crisis and the work and well-being of Icelandic upper secondary school teachers
Iceland was one of the first countries to collapse in the global financial crisis of 2008 and it followed the OECD suggestion by opening upper secondary schools for young jobseekers, but without increasing the number of teachers. The upper secondary school level is also in a period of educational change, as it is in many other countries nowadays. The experience of Iceland provides valuable lessons for the international community. The article expl…
Inclusion, exclusion and the queering of spaces in two Icelandic upper secondary schools
The concept of space is gaining increased attention in studies of sexuality and gender, not least those focusing on heterosexism and heteronormativity. Such studies have demonstrated that space is sexualised, gendered and actively produced. In this article, we present the findings from an ethnographic study of two Icelandic upper secondary schools. One is a traditional academic school in Reykjavík (the capital city) and the other is a mixture of …
Manifestations of Heterosexism in Icelandic Upper Secondary Schools and the Responses of LGBT Students
How does institutionalized heterosexism manifest itself in Icelandic upper secondary schools and how do lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students respond to these manifestations? In addressing these questions, interviews were conducted with six current and former LGBT upper secondary school students, using queer theory and thematic analysis. It is argued that institutionalized heterosexism prevails in the structure and culture of th…
Additional workload or a part of the job? Icelandic teachers' discourse on inclusive education
The aim of this article is to examine the discourse of Icelandic compulsory school teachers on inclusive education. From 1974 and onwards, the education policy in Iceland has been towards inclusion, and Iceland is considered to be an example of a highly inclusive education system with few segregated resources for students with special educational needs. In particular, the article focuses on what characterises and legitimises teachers' discourse o…
Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland
The article explores how the Icelandic public school curriculum for early childhood, compulsory and upper secondary school deals with education for sustainable development. As the curriculum does not often mention the term sustainability, a key with which to investigate signs of education for sustainable development in the three curricula was created. The key encourages a holistic view of sustainable development, where economic, environmental and…
The politics of historical discourse analysis
This article deals with the ways in which historical discourse analysis is at once different from and similar to research described as qualitative or quantitative. It discusses the consequences of applying the standards of such methods to historical discourse analysis. It is pointed out that although the merit of research using historical discourse analysis must not be judged by the standards of qualitative methods alone, it can be easier to admi…
“Strong, Independent, Able to Learn More …”
This paper deals with the way the vision of including children with special educational needs into their home school, constituted for instance in UNESCO's The Salamanca Statement and Framework on Special Needs Education, has merged with other contemporary discourses (ideas and practices) in Icelandic education. In particular, the paper focuses on the historical conjuncture of inclusion politics, individualism, a technological approach to educatio…
To Be a Male Role Model Or To Be a Teacher
Icelandic Nationalism and the Kyoto Protocol
The paper analyses the discourse on global environmental change in Iceland in official reports and newspaper discussions around the turn of the millennium. Three competing discursive positions were found. First, Iceland can provide clean energy for the world so that aluminium smelters do not need to burn as much fossil fuels as they would have to do otherwise. Second, Iceland is responsible to the world for the protection of its environment becau…
Farm Boy from the Edge of the Arctic and the Seduction of Feminist Pedagogy in American Academia
The article assumes that pedagogical decisions are not merely the result of the educator's personal choice or her/his serious and rational curriculum planning; rather, they occur through the interrelation of coincidences, structural issues, political and institutional discourses, and events in people's lives. The article focuses upon the politics of progressive pedagogy as they concern my work on a US campus (as a graduate student and as a teachi…
Professionalization of progress and expertise among teacher educators in Iceland
Principles of legitimation in educational discourses in Iceland and the production of progress
On the one hand this paper is an exploration of how suitable the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault are to explain educational reform. At another level, the paper tells a story of educational reform in Iceland in the last 25 years ‐ through the Bourdieuean and Foucauldian lenses. The paper identifies legitimating principles in the discourse on educational reform in Iceland and focuses on the tensions over what counts as capital in te…
Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland
The article explores how the Icelandic public school curriculum for early childhood, compulsory and upper secondary school deals with education for sustainable development. As the curriculum does not often mention the term sustainability, a key with which to investigate signs of education for sustainable development in the three curricula was created. The key encourages a holistic view of sustainable development, where economic, environmental and…
Manifestations of Heterosexism in Icelandic Upper Secondary Schools and the Responses of LGBT Students
How does institutionalized heterosexism manifest itself in Icelandic upper secondary schools and how do lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students respond to these manifestations? In addressing these questions, interviews were conducted with six current and former LGBT upper secondary school students, using queer theory and thematic analysis. It is argued that institutionalized heterosexism prevails in the structure and culture of th…
Icelandic Nationalism and the Kyoto Protocol
The paper analyses the discourse on global environmental change in Iceland in official reports and newspaper discussions around the turn of the millennium. Three competing discursive positions were found. First, Iceland can provide clean energy for the world so that aluminium smelters do not need to burn as much fossil fuels as they would have to do otherwise. Second, Iceland is responsible to the world for the protection of its environment becau…
Police education reform in Iceland
In recent decades, in many countries, police education has shifted from vocational training schools run by the police to universities. In Iceland, in 2016, basic police education was reformed, the National Police Academy was closed, and a new university programme was created. In this article, we analyse the discourse in two reports from 2014 and 2015 and two legal texts from 2016 leading up to this education reform. A six-step approach to discour…
Masculinity strategies of young queer men as queer capital
This article explores how 11 gay and bisexual young men in Iceland, whom we interviewed, have adopted different strategies to deal with the reality of Icelandic masculinity manifestations in the early 2010s. Bourdieuean views of explaining their ideas as social strategies were utilized to interpret how they had adopted behaviors, looks, and ideas in tact with, or contrary to, the hegemonic, heteromasculine views of how men are supposed to act, lo…
Curriculum, crisis and the work and well-being of Icelandic upper secondary school teachers
Iceland was one of the first countries to collapse in the global financial crisis of 2008 and it followed the OECD suggestion by opening upper secondary schools for young jobseekers, but without increasing the number of teachers. The upper secondary school level is also in a period of educational change, as it is in many other countries nowadays. The experience of Iceland provides valuable lessons for the international community. The article expl…
Inclusion, exclusion and the queering of spaces in two Icelandic upper secondary schools
The concept of space is gaining increased attention in studies of sexuality and gender, not least those focusing on heterosexism and heteronormativity. Such studies have demonstrated that space is sexualised, gendered and actively produced. In this article, we present the findings from an ethnographic study of two Icelandic upper secondary schools. One is a traditional academic school in Reykjavík (the capital city) and the other is a mixture of …
The politics of historical discourse analysis
This article deals with the ways in which historical discourse analysis is at once different from and similar to research described as qualitative or quantitative. It discusses the consequences of applying the standards of such methods to historical discourse analysis. It is pointed out that although the merit of research using historical discourse analysis must not be judged by the standards of qualitative methods alone, it can be easier to admi…
Walls, seats and the gymnasium
This article focuses on how students make use of different spaces in one compulsory school in Iceland and how gender is produced through activities in these spaces. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted for three months in 2016 among 8th and 9th graders at one public school in Iceland. Our analysis is based on poststructural and material theorisation in a country with one of the most progressive curricula in the world. It indicates that the school…
Medical approach and ableism versus a human rights vision
Trends towards inclusive education have informed educational policy worldwide although the term is still controversial, and the implementation disputed. In this article, we focus on the discourse in policy documents relating to students within upper secondary schools in Iceland, both at the national level and in selected upper secondary schools. The study is situated within the Disability Studies in Education paradigm. A six-step historical disco…
Meaningful education for returning-to-school students in a comprehensive upper secondary school in Iceland
Dropout from upper secondary education in Iceland is higher than in the neighboring countries, but varied options to re-enter school have also been on offer. This article focuses on how students, who had returned to a selected upper secondary school after having quit in one or more other schools, benefited from an innovative pedagogical approach used in the school. The article draws upon interviews, in which the interviewees expressed their pleas…
Professionalization of progress and expertise among teacher educators in Iceland
Principles of legitimation in educational discourses in Iceland and the production of progress
On the one hand this paper is an exploration of how suitable the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault are to explain educational reform. At another level, the paper tells a story of educational reform in Iceland in the last 25 years ‐ through the Bourdieuean and Foucauldian lenses. The paper identifies legitimating principles in the discourse on educational reform in Iceland and focuses on the tensions over what counts as capital in te…
Farm Boy from the Edge of the Arctic and the Seduction of Feminist Pedagogy in American Academia
The article assumes that pedagogical decisions are not merely the result of the educator's personal choice or her/his serious and rational curriculum planning; rather, they occur through the interrelation of coincidences, structural issues, political and institutional discourses, and events in people's lives. The article focuses upon the politics of progressive pedagogy as they concern my work on a US campus (as a graduate student and as a teachi…
Icelandic Nationalism and the Kyoto Protocol
The paper analyses the discourse on global environmental change in Iceland in official reports and newspaper discussions around the turn of the millennium. Three competing discursive positions were found. First, Iceland can provide clean energy for the world so that aluminium smelters do not need to burn as much fossil fuels as they would have to do otherwise. Second, Iceland is responsible to the world for the protection of its environment becau…
“Strong, Independent, Able to Learn More …”
This paper deals with the way the vision of including children with special educational needs into their home school, constituted for instance in UNESCO's The Salamanca Statement and Framework on Special Needs Education, has merged with other contemporary discourses (ideas and practices) in Icelandic education. In particular, the paper focuses on the historical conjuncture of inclusion politics, individualism, a technological approach to educatio…
To Be a Male Role Model Or To Be a Teacher
The politics of historical discourse analysis
This article deals with the ways in which historical discourse analysis is at once different from and similar to research described as qualitative or quantitative. It discusses the consequences of applying the standards of such methods to historical discourse analysis. It is pointed out that although the merit of research using historical discourse analysis must not be judged by the standards of qualitative methods alone, it can be easier to admi…
Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland
The article explores how the Icelandic public school curriculum for early childhood, compulsory and upper secondary school deals with education for sustainable development. As the curriculum does not often mention the term sustainability, a key with which to investigate signs of education for sustainable development in the three curricula was created. The key encourages a holistic view of sustainable development, where economic, environmental and…
Manifestations of Heterosexism in Icelandic Upper Secondary Schools and the Responses of LGBT Students
How does institutionalized heterosexism manifest itself in Icelandic upper secondary schools and how do lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students respond to these manifestations? In addressing these questions, interviews were conducted with six current and former LGBT upper secondary school students, using queer theory and thematic analysis. It is argued that institutionalized heterosexism prevails in the structure and culture of th…
Additional workload or a part of the job? Icelandic teachers' discourse on inclusive education
The aim of this article is to examine the discourse of Icelandic compulsory school teachers on inclusive education. From 1974 and onwards, the education policy in Iceland has been towards inclusion, and Iceland is considered to be an example of a highly inclusive education system with few segregated resources for students with special educational needs. In particular, the article focuses on what characterises and legitimises teachers' discourse o…
Curriculum, crisis and the work and well-being of Icelandic upper secondary school teachers
Iceland was one of the first countries to collapse in the global financial crisis of 2008 and it followed the OECD suggestion by opening upper secondary schools for young jobseekers, but without increasing the number of teachers. The upper secondary school level is also in a period of educational change, as it is in many other countries nowadays. The experience of Iceland provides valuable lessons for the international community. The article expl…
Inclusion, exclusion and the queering of spaces in two Icelandic upper secondary schools
The concept of space is gaining increased attention in studies of sexuality and gender, not least those focusing on heterosexism and heteronormativity. Such studies have demonstrated that space is sexualised, gendered and actively produced. In this article, we present the findings from an ethnographic study of two Icelandic upper secondary schools. One is a traditional academic school in Reykjavík (the capital city) and the other is a mixture of …
Meaningful education for returning-to-school students in a comprehensive upper secondary school in Iceland
Dropout from upper secondary education in Iceland is higher than in the neighboring countries, but varied options to re-enter school have also been on offer. This article focuses on how students, who had returned to a selected upper secondary school after having quit in one or more other schools, benefited from an innovative pedagogical approach used in the school. The article draws upon interviews, in which the interviewees expressed their pleas…
Masculinity strategies of young queer men as queer capital
This article explores how 11 gay and bisexual young men in Iceland, whom we interviewed, have adopted different strategies to deal with the reality of Icelandic masculinity manifestations in the early 2010s. Bourdieuean views of explaining their ideas as social strategies were utilized to interpret how they had adopted behaviors, looks, and ideas in tact with, or contrary to, the hegemonic, heteromasculine views of how men are supposed to act, lo…
Nordic perspectives on disability studies in education
Disability studies in education (DSE) is an interdisciplinary field derived from the need to re-conceptualise special education dominated by a medical perspective on disability. In this article we identify what characterises DSE research and consider whether there is a case for arguing for a specific field of DSE in Finland and Iceland. Our analysis is based on a review of 59 studies published by Finnish and Icelandic scholars during the time per…
Medical approach and ableism versus a human rights vision
Trends towards inclusive education have informed educational policy worldwide although the term is still controversial, and the implementation disputed. In this article, we focus on the discourse in policy documents relating to students within upper secondary schools in Iceland, both at the national level and in selected upper secondary schools. The study is situated within the Disability Studies in Education paradigm. A six-step historical disco…
Walls, seats and the gymnasium
This article focuses on how students make use of different spaces in one compulsory school in Iceland and how gender is produced through activities in these spaces. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted for three months in 2016 among 8th and 9th graders at one public school in Iceland. Our analysis is based on poststructural and material theorisation in a country with one of the most progressive curricula in the world. It indicates that the school…
The Discourse of Drama
In this article, we consider how girls are positioned in school by what we have chosen to call the discourse of drama. The widely held notion that Nordic girls have it all along with this drama discourse are seen to be the key narratives that reinforce a hegemonic form of girlhood. This ethnographic study focuses on the relations of students between the ages of 13 and 15 in the light of uninformed school staff-member practices. Our findings sugge…
Natural disciplinarians or learning from the job? The first two years of seven male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools
This article presents an interview study with seven newly-graduated male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools. We interviewed them five times during their first two years of teaching. The focus is on the ways in which the gender of the novice teachers mattered in the expectations that they experienced and how these expectations interacted with the professional demands of being a teacher. The interviews reveal that hegemonic masculinity ideas …
Police education reform in Iceland
In recent decades, in many countries, police education has shifted from vocational training schools run by the police to universities. In Iceland, in 2016, basic police education was reformed, the National Police Academy was closed, and a new university programme was created. In this article, we analyse the discourse in two reports from 2014 and 2015 and two legal texts from 2016 leading up to this education reform. A six-step approach to discour…
Now We Just Have to Take a Step Back”
The Icelandic preschool system provides education and childcare services for children, thereby enabling Icelandic women to participate extensively in the labor market. This participation is a key factor in maintaining the country’s longstanding position as the most gender‐equal nation in the world. However, in recent years Iceland’s preschool system has faced significant strain due to a shortage of childcare options for children aged 12 months to…
The Paradox of Progress and Accessibility
In the rapidly evolving world of technology, it is crucial to keep track of the progress of digital transformation and its impact on marginalized communities. This study examines Icelandic governmental digital policies through historical discourse analysis, exploring the ways in which digital transformation initiatives are conceptualized within a neoliberal rationality that emphasizes efficiency, competitiveness, and individuality and how this al…
Sociology (20 works) · Political science (15 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Icelandic (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Social science (10 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Gender Roles and Identity Studies (7 works) · Psychology (7 works)