The main aim of the research project is to explore educational policy and implementation of policy of four central educational offices in four municipalities in Iceland related to immigrant children and students. A second aim is to explore the views of key people in these educational central offices towards the policy and their experiences of policymaking in the area. The project is a two year project (2014-2015) and complementary to the three year (2013-2015) NordForsk and Icelandic Centre for Research funded project Learning spaces for inclusion and social justice: Success stories from immigrant students and school communities in four Nordic countries. Both projects are based in the field of critical multiculturalism , which has focused on challenges in modern multicultural societies, such as questions of cultural rights of minority groups, and that education has developed in relation to the defined needs of a particular majority or majorities (May & Sleeter, 2010; Nieto, 2010; Parekh, 2006). Other theoretical approaches in the field of policy and leadership are also applied (Artiles, Kozleski & Waitoller, 2011; Sergiovanni, 2001; Teddlie & Reynolds, 2000; Townsend, 2007; Woods, 2005). Methods applied in the Municipal educational policy project are semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Data collection includes: 1) Interviews with key people in four central educational offices in Iceland (2-3 people in each office); 2) Analysis of policy documents in these four educational offices. Main research questions are the following: Which educational policies have been emphasised in the muncipalities in relation to immigrant children and students in recent years and how have these been implemented? What support for implementation is available for the schools? What are the main obstacles for implementation of the policies? The paper presents some preliminary findings from the interviews and a comparison of educational policy documents in the four municipalities.

Artiles, A., Kozleski, E. & Waitoller, F. (eds). (2011). Inclusive education. Cambridge: Harward Education Press. May, S. & Sleeter, C. E. (2010). Introduction. Critical multiculturalism : Theory and praxis. In S. May & C. E. Sleeter (eds.), Critical multiculturalism : Theory and praxis (pp. 1–16). New York: Routledge. Nieto, S. (2010). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities (10th anniversary edition). New York: Teachers College Press.