Konur og stærðfræðimenntun á Íslandi

Women and mathematical education in Iceland.
The subject of this article is women in mathematics education in Iceland. After a period of stagnation in the afterwar period, Iceland was swept into the international school mathematics reform wave of the 1960s, promoted by the OECD. A number of young girls went into studies in mathematical subjects in the 1960s, both in universities and in teacher training colleges. While the introduction of modern mathematics into primary schools led to problems, it aroused also creativity and initiative in curriculum development in the 1970s on behalf of teachers, not the least women. The conjecture is that the active participation of women in mathematical education has acted as a role model for girls and contributed to the relatively high performance of Icelandic girls in international comparative studies.