Equality and Educational Opportunity in Iceland

Thorlindsson, T. 1988. Equality and Educational Opportunity in Iceland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 32, 9‐22. This paper analyses educational mobility and educational opportunity in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the light of educational reform. The analysis focuses on the one hand on the issue of the openness of the educational system and the issue of equality of educational access on the other. The results show that the upper levels of the educational system are relatively open to individuals of diverse origin and thus do not indicate the formation of a university educated elite. The lowest educational strata, however, is characterized by closure and a high degree of self‐recruitment. Furthermore, the results show that educational opportunities are not equally distributed in terms of parents' education. These results are discussed in the context of the growing educational expansion and the egalitarian beliefs of the Icelanders. It is pointed out, among other things, that the two issues of openness of the educational system and equality of access are easily confused, especially in everyday discourse, and may lead to misconceptions about equality and the nature of educational opportunity.