Hanna Ragnarsdóttir

Collisions and Continuities Hanna Ragnarsdóttir

Icelandic society has seen considerable demographic changes during the last decade with growing numbers of immigrant families settling in the country. This has created a challenge to the Icelandic educational system, demanding improvement to meet the ethnic diversity of students at all school levels. This book presents a study of ten immigrant families, with particular emphasis on the children and their schooling during their first years in Iceland. The main significance of the study is its close analysis of individual experiences during the processes of immigration and adjustment to a new society and school community. The main conclusions of the study reveal insufficient school conditions of many of the immigrant children and discontinuities between some of the homes and schools. A reform agenda is needed at all school levels in Iceland to respond to the new multicultural reality and to prevent the segregation of immigrant children. The book should be useful to researchers within the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and multicultural studies as well as practitioners, such as teachers, school leaders and policy makers.