| Summary: | 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 ...
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