Rósa Gunnarsdóttir elementary school teacher

entrepreneur in innovation education

Abstract

In this article I tell the story of Rósa Gunnarsdóttir, who has had many roles in education, with her experience as an elementary school teacher laying the foundation for the other roles. This article presents interesting ideas on teaching and learning, especially creative thinking and emancipatory pedagogy, by sharing the story of Rósa Gunnarsdóttir, who has been influential at different levels of school practice and education. Among other roles, she has been an entrepreneur in teaching innovation education and research.

Methodology and method

Life history methodology and narrative inquiry were employed to elicit Rósa’s story. Over three interviews, I elicited Rósa’s attitudes and views on her own history as a teacher and influencer in education. I also relate my own reminiscences on our nearly three decades of interactions and collaborations.

Rósa’s story

The findings comprise narratives that fall into six themes: Rósa’s youth; events igniting her interest in becoming a teacher; attending the Iceland University of Education; teaching in Foldaskóli (compulsory school in Reykjavík); her views on education, development of her working theory and finally emphasis and approaches in innovation education. The discussion chapter is a synopsis and discussion called: Convictions and ideals in praxis: Professional working theory.

Youth

Rósa grew up spending summers with her family in the Akureyjar islands. Conditions there were harsh. The family had to repair and rebuild all of their own housing and machinery. Rósa learned a lot from these formative experiences, and she liked handling machines, taking them apart, and repairing them – especially motorcycles.

Interest ignited in becoming a teacher.

Rósa graduated when she was 19. After graduation, she began teaching young children in the primary school at Þingeyri. She liked seeing the children entrusted to her grow and become empowered by acknowledging their abilities. This experience sparked Rósa’s interest in pedagogy and she decided to enter the Iceland University of Education.

Iceland University of Education

Rósa liked studying at the Iceland University of Education. She said she learned a lot there by taking courses in both the natural sciences and “other creative subjects”, as she puts it. She felt the studies empowered her as an individual and gave her knowledge and skills to help the students with whom she would be entrusted. She stated that many teachers at the university captivated her interest and met her expectations: “they left a thumbprint on my heart”.

Teaching at Foldaskóli

After graduation from the IUE, Rósa took on a teaching position in Foldaskóli, a new compulsory school for six- to 16-year-olds in Reykjavík, teaching physics and biology at the secondary level (ages 14–16). When she observed that the teaching materials were the same old materials she had learned in compulsory school, which were not fun or interesting, she immediately decided to abandon those materials and teach according to the curriculum without books.

Rósa’s views on education

Rósa says that education should contribute to the individual’s character and dignity. Education should build on caring and love, open communication, and respect for the emotional and physical well-being of children and grown-ups. She wants the individual to leave education with dignity, without their honour having been impugned in any waybeing impugned.

Emphasis and approaches in innovation education

Rósa believes that innovation education includes an approach that makes it possible to enact her visions of education in practice. She has repeatedly seen how the innovation work ignites joy and a burning interest in learning. Rósa uses the imagery heart-headhand to describe the process of innovation education. She believes that when students discover what problems are important to them, they do it through the heart of their feelings. The head finds the solution, and the hand makes the product ‒ a description, a drawing, or an artefact. Rósa says that the core precept of innovation education is that the students feel that they own the process and care about it ‒ that the need they are working to fill is chosen because they care about it (the heart)

Discussion – Convictions and ideals in praxis: Professional working theory

Rósa’s courage to work in the way that she finds important is appealing. She adhered to it through her students’ insecurity and her colleagues’ criticism. It takes courage to go against the grain and teach in a way that empowers students to actively participate and have agency in society.

Rósa’s story reveals that she is a visionary who converts her vision into action. She says she wants to be a teacher who leads students to “the educational well” that gives them the wisdom and power to become more humane. Rósa has had the courage and willingness to experiment with approaches such as teaching without books. Rósa’s professional working theory revolves around practising emancipatory pedagogy in action. This approach entails believing in the individual, supporting them to make independent decisions, and empowering them to be creative in disseminating and implementing their work and taking an active part in shaping society.