Time to remember: Students benefit from participation in Skrekkur, a talent competition for lower secondary schools in Reykjavík

Abstract

The aim of this article is to shed light on how participation in projects such as Skrekkur, a talent competition for lower secondary schools in Reykjavík, affects the well-being and self-image of young people. The article will also attempt to clarify the nature of arts education among 13–15 year old students and explain the effect of a project such as Skrekkur on the school community and wider society. The article builds on Jóna Guðrún Jónsdóttir’s M.Ed. thesis How to wake up the arts in oneself. There has been a major change in education in Iceland in recent decades. The education policy published in the National Curriculum for Compulsory Schools from 2013 emphasizes six fundamental pillars of education; that is, literacy, sustainability, health and wellbeing, democracy and human rights, equality and creativity. Among other things, the curriculum states: “Compulsory school should develop students’ skills in the spirit of the six fundamental pillars and prepare them for participation in a democratic society” (Mennta- og menningarmálaráðuneyti, 2013). The arts make a strong claim to being part of the educational system. Through the arts, students can construct aesthetic knowledge and deepen their human impulses and human experiences. Through drama, dance and music young people gain the opportunity to perform seven minutes of production in Skrekkur, a talent competition for lower secondary schools in Reykjavík which a group of 35 students have created as their own from beginning to end. The project is a cooperative venture of the compulsory school and the Reykjavík Municipality Department of Recreation and Youth. This venture is created for the benefit of the young people themselves and also in support of the school community and wider society. The goal of the project is, among other things, to practice cooperation, strengthen self-esteem and compassion, and broaden horizons. Through drama, dance and music the students can learn to interact with one another in a safe space and try out different societal roles. Through role play students have the opportunity to explore aspects of what it means to be human, democracy and critical thinking through experiential learning. Studying through the arts teaches students to express themselves in a different way than going by the book. Andersen (2012), Neelands (2015) and Rannveig Björk Þorkelsdóttir (2018), believe that drama is a mode of transformative learning. The research sets out to discover how participation in Skrekkur affects young people’s well-being and self-esteem in compulsory education in Reykjavík. The overarching research questions are: How does participation in Skrekkur affect young people’s well-being? How does participation in Skrekkur affect the students’ self- esteem? What is the impact of participation on the school community and school culture? An ethnographic study was carried out within a socio-cultural framework of understanding. Interviews were conducted in seven compulsory schools in Reykjavík, with students, teachers and headmasters under participants’ observation. The results showed that participation in Skrekkur positively affects the wellbeing and self-image of young people, especially when they are given the opportunity to work from their own experience of education and democratic values. The study also showed that participation in Skrekkur benefits the school community, as strong team unity formed around the competition. Students got to know other students from different year classes and it turned out that they regarded their participation as a very valuable time resulting in positive memories. Participation increased the students’ self-pride; this applied both to the participants and spectators from the participating schools as well as to students who watched by distance. Thus, participants and spectators became part of the Skrekkur community, where social bonds were formed, as well as cultural and social influences that supported the school community as a whole. In this way, the arts became part of the students’ experiential learning.