In Iceland early childhood education is an important first step for children into the school and broader community. In the past 25 years there has been a growing body of research on immigrant children’s experiences within Icelandic preschools, in particular research that draws on multicultural education theoretical frames. The significant increase in the immigrant population calls for new and critical ways of developing a society that is mindful of ensuring equitable, just and democratic ways of associated living. In this talk, we present findings from a decolonial review of academic peer-reviewed articles conducted between 2009-2023 on the Icelandic preschool context and that apply a multicultural theoretical frame or perspective. Our purpose is to inform the development and future directions of Early Childhood Education (ECE), in particular preschools, that are experiencing rapid increases in linguistic and cultural diversity.

In the most recent data from Statistics Iceland (2024) the estimated population of individuals who were born outside of Iceland to non-Icelandic parents or who have parents or grandparents who were not born with Icelandic citizenship was 16.3 % of the island’s population (Statistics Iceland, 2024). With a population of a little under 400,000, such a significant number of people who are maintaining homes, raising families, attending educational institutions, seeking employment and aging, a country that has remained relatively homogenous in terms of linguistic and cultural diversity, needs deep introspection of its changing social educational landscape.

As a liberal democracy, Iceland’s aim of being an open and inclusive society has been a recurrent theme in national welfare and education policies and legislation, reflecting a social model characteristic of Nordic social democracies. Multiculturalism and multicultural education have been used to address contexts of diversity. However, tools that aim to include “different voices in Eurocentric sites of conversation” can work to domesticate and make differences more acceptable while at the same time upholding the “universalism of European reason” (Andreotti, 2011, p 388). Maldonado-Torres (2004) argues that multiculturalism “that only recognizes the right for difference when peoples are well domesticated by capitalism, the market economy and liberal ideals of freedom and equality” (p. 49) helps to conceal racism in policies and practices. Multiculturalism can then be used to gloss over or forget the constitutive absences, the absence of other epistemologies and ontologies by encouraging neutral universalist stances. This leads to epistemic racism which reproduces the myth that other cultures cannot or have not gotten by without the west (Andreotti, 2011). Research on preschools in the west often fails to pay attention to the impact of dominant social and culture discourses that frame our understanding of childhood, child development, and education (Fylkesnes, 2019; Hübinette & Lundström, 2011). Due to the hegemonic western world view whiteness is the default, thus western preschools can be constructed as social spaces of whiteness and perceived as neutral (Butler et al., 2019). The use of Eurocentric curricula results in what Bulter et al. (2019) call “cognitive assimilation” (Butler et al., 2019, p.4), which allows inequity to be perpetuated through economic and political liberal views (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). We conceptualise multiculturalism as a theoretical framework that allows for analysis of associated living in any given society. It allows for critical engagement with issues of diversity while taking into consideration “hegemony, prevailing social hierarchies and inequity of power and privilege” (Gorski 2008, p. 515). Our research provides an opportunity to encourage explicit engagement with issues of discrimination and prejudice, such as racism and linguicism (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2021), in preschool research in Iceland.

Our work draws on a data subset of a project titled A mapping of Icelandic Educational research funded by the University of Iceland Centennial Fund (ice. Aldarafmælissjóður Háskóla Íslands) from 2012-2016. The project mapped Icelandic preschool research [ice. Leikskólar] and compulsory schools from 2003-2021. For this presentation, we selected articles from the project database, as well as additional articles published in 2022 and 2023, to answer the research question: What does a decolonial analysis of research on Icelandic preschools conducted between 2009-2023 reveal about how the concept of multiculturalism is understood and applied? The use of content analysis allowed us to search for keywords that were then analysed and interpreted using a decolonial analytical framework. Our data consists of over 50 peer-reviewed articles in both Icelandic and English which were published between 2009 and 2023. We began by selecting search terms related to the concept of multiculturalism to obtain the broadest sample of scholarly research regarding Icelandic preschools. The terms used to conduct the search were preschools, in conjunction with the terms multicultural, multilingual, bilingual, Icelandic as a second language, immigrants and immigrant children and the concurring terms in Icelandic. We use an abductive critical content analysis approach to support the decolonial analysis. An abductive approach to data analysis is a non-linear process, involving “immersion in and deliberate turning or moving away from the task of scrutinizing evidence to be open to possibilities” (Rinehart, 2020, p. 1). Our decolonial analytical framework focuses on five categories: Epistemology and ontology, which aimed to critically examine what and whose knowledge and perception of reality were evident within the research (Andreotti, 2011; Maldonado-Torres, 2001). Methodology, which sought to explore more clearly if and how research was conducted through western lenses of exploring the experiences of the strange and the Other or through more socially just and inclusive research methodologies (Tuhiwai-Smith, 2013). Researchers’ reflexivity, which centres around the way researchers discuss how they are connected to the research they are doing. Patterns of dominance, which looked at politics of difference to identify examples where positions of power and dominance were expressed, analysed or erased within the research. This is a key aspect of decolonial research where the historically dominant views are critically engaged with and openly explored. Development discourses, which addresses western models of development and conceptions of reality (Fylkesnes, 2019; Hübinette & Lundström, 2011; Hoff, 2018).

We found that earlier research tended to apply a conservative lens to cultural and linguistic diversity in preschools, underpinned by notions of celebrating diversity for the benefits that it brings to Icelandic society. Educational strategies that encourage social cohesion and integration are promoted in this type of research, but risk assimilation and maintaining exclusionary practices. Dominant western conceptions of practice and knowledge were presented as acceptable and relevant. In some instances, these articles referred to critical theories but failed to engage with systemic and institutional critiques and issues of power. In later research the articles were categorized as liberal/critical liberal. These articles applied a critical lens, that engaged with issues of equality, discrimination and democracy as social justice concerns. In contrast with conservative stances, these researchers drew on critical theories, the politics of belonging and power dynamics to engage with issues of Othering and exclusion. Several questioned the approach to Icelandic language learning as the dominant response to linguistic diversity and argued for greater focus on the political and emotional impact on children and society. However, even critical liberal stances risked domesticating issues of discrimination and prejudice. Only two of the articles that we have reviewed to date explicitly address the negative impact of dominant conceptions and discourses on the lived experiences of students who have language sand cultures that are not solely rooted in the Icelandic heritage. We argue that consideration should be placed on critiquing the response of societies and their institutions, politically, legally and morally. Ultimately, a decolonial lens can help us to better serve a diverse population, because it explicitly addresses forms of discrimination and prejudice such as racism and linguicism (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2022). Conservative and liberal/critical liberal frames can allow such injustices to persist by making them invisible, acceptable, or domesticated.

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