Chapter 7: Between two Continents, Between two Traditions: Education and Care in Icelandic Preschools

Early childhood education in Iceland can be traced to the beginning of urbanization in the 1920s, when the Women’s Alliance in Reykjavik opened the first full-time daycare center for poor children. In 1940 a new part-time program, called playschool, emerged in Iceland. Daycare centers were fulltime programs and limited their enrollment to priority groups, such as children from poor or single-parent homes, while playschools were half-day programs open to everyone. The Women’s Alliance continued to provide playschools and daycare centers for the next 30 years until, in 1973, both were integrated under the Ministry of Education. This represented an important shift. The care and education of children prior to compulsory school was no longer viewed as social policy geared especially toward poor children. Preschool, regardless of whether it was full or part time, was now a part of the nation’s education policy (Lög um hlutdeild ríkisins í byggingu og rekstri dagvistunarheimila. Nr. 43/1973).