6.12.2013
Þuríður Jóhannsdóttir [Thurídur Jóhannsdóttir]
‘What we wanted to do was to change the situation’: Distance teacher education as stimulation for school development in Iceland

The article describes the origin of a distance programme for teachers first offered at the Iceland University of Education in 1993 in response to a lack of qualified teachers in rural Iceland. Student teachers were teaching in their home districts while enrolled in the programme, which was organized as a combination of campus-based sessions and home study, communicating with university lecturers via the Internet. The purpose of the article is to enhance understanding of the inception of the programme and shed light on the way in which student teachers’ participation in the distance programme enabled them to stimulate school development.