Education, Recognition and the Sami People of Norway (original) (raw)
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The indigenous Sami citizen and Norwegian national identity: tensions in curriculum discourses
Human Rights Education Review, 2018
The paper explores citizenship positions for the Sami as citizen in the overarching policy document for the Norwegian school. Informed by the perspective that policy documents hold discursive productivity in the Foucauldian sense, this document is regarded as vital for locating normative cultural ideals. The analysis points to three discourses: indigeneity, multiculturalism and the common Norwegian cultural heritage perspective. Although the analysis suggests that there is a variety of possible citizenship identity positions, tensions are located in their ontological and epistemological claims regarding what it means to be Sami. The paper argues that indigenous perspectives might both challenge and complement current ideas of citizenship and human rights education. Notably, indigeneity accentuates the tension between universalism and recognition in human rights education. The paper also points to how the curriculum has great ambitions about the possibilities of inclusive practice within an educational system that lacks sufficient competence on Sami culture.
Historical and political perspectives on Sámi and inclusive school systems in Norway
2019
The aim of this chapter is to introduce Norway’s inclusive education policies for two separate school systems: the national Norwegian and the Sámi systems. This chapter is based on research done in Norway on its national and Sámi schools and their curricula. Norway is an interesting example when it comes to indigenous education and national schools, as state policies on diversity and minority and indigenous issues have been consciously implemented in both school systems. The evolution of these guidelines, as written in education curricula and as implemented in practice, is the core focus of this article. This chapter aims to describe and contemplate the overarching and general tendencies of Sámi schools and issues in Norway, which have received little scholarly attention. We build on and add to the existing research by combining issues related to the national, or mainstream, school systems with issues related to the Sámi school systems. We will present
Book Review: Language, Citizenship, and Sámi Education in the Nordic North, 1900-1940
Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 2022
Skutnabb-Kangas (2002, p.539) eloquently states, "Just as DNA is the material of heredity, language is the DNA of culture." Language is the vehicle for knowledge transmission, and the Sami people's struggle to maintain their language, culture, and livelihoods are at the heart of Kortekangas' book, Language, Citizenship, and Sámi Education in the Nordic North, 1900-1940. Kortekangas' work contributes to the literature regarding the history of Sami education, educational policies, and the struggle for Sami agency in education. However, Kortekangas' book differs from previous literature by offering an in-depth period-specific examination of Sami education rather than a generalized overview. Sami education in the early 20 th century is presented so that the reader is provided with a foundation to build their understanding of the intricacies involved in developing a modern education system in the Nordic North. By delivering an in-depth period-specific examination of Sami education, positioning the voices of the Sami people and Sami educators at the forefront, the reader can critically analyze early Sami education systems and the paternalistic attitudes rooted within. Kortekangas situates the issues embedded in Sami education by weaving together the historical tenets of assimilation, paternalism, and racism prevalent in the Nordic North in the early 20 th century. The author also provides a broader context by paralleling, albeit briefly, similar issues across Arctic populations, including those impacting the Inuit of Canada. To better position the reader, early in the text, Kortekangas offers a map (p. xxi) of Northern Scandinavia and Finland, linking the reader to the physical space of the Sami.
Teaching About the Other in Primary Level Social Studies: The Sami in Norwegian Textbooks
Journal of Social Science Education, 2018
The aim of this article is to discuss to what extent and in what ways the Sami people are included in national imaginary in textbooks. The article sheds critical light on important aspects of democracy, inclusion and multi-culturalism in education through the example of indigenous peoples in Norway. The article also explores what opportunities textbooks provide for promoting anti-oppressive education and pedagogical subjectification. Method: Social studies textbooks for primary school are analyzed based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and elements from multi-modal analysis. The analysis focuses on the use of vocabulary and pronouns signaling inclusion and exclusion. Specific attention is paid to the hidden curriculum. Findings: The Sami are essentialized and actively constructed as the Other through the structure and content of narratives. This corresponds to the strategy described in anti-oppressive education as education for the Other. Externalization of the Sami from the story of the Norwegian national day and in particular, treatment of the discriminatory Norwegianization politics, reinforce the image of Norwegian exceptionalism. Practical implications: Potential for education that promotes social change and subjectification through disrupting hegemonic discourses are located. Extended knowledge on this implicates further research on the workings of discourse in educational practice.
International Journal of Social Science Research and Review
The politics of identity is central to the current socio-political discourses. People, who have been left behind and oppressed historically by the majority culture, are struggling for their rights and recognition. Non-recognition or misrecognition is the denial of ‘existence’ in a sociological sense. The idea of identity emerged from the concept of authentic self; however, the collective sense of being has driven the wheel of politics of identity giving rise to multiculturalism. This article draws upon the theoretical insight of ‘politics of recognition’ developed by Charles Taylor and ‘intercultural dialogue’ propounded by Bhikhu Parekh in order to analyze how Sami and Rohingya communities engage in their endeavor for recognition and self-determination. The article argues that a collective sense of identity and intercultural dialogue are the remedies for historically oppressed group identity.
Antiracism Education In and Out of Schools, 2018
This chapter aims to problematise the legacy of the Sámi’s assimilation and colonisation and try to solve the resulting problems through mediating Sámi education, discovering how mediating education can remedy the legacy of assimilation and racism. The word “mediate” means to arbitrate, make peace, resolve and negotiate (Auburn et al., 2012). Mediation encompasses inclusion and caring in addition to participatory and conclusive motives. Peter Berger (1979, p. 169) means by mediating structures “those institutions which stand between the individual in his [sic] private sphere and the large institutions of the public sphere”. Mediation is a versatile concept from these perspectives (Sarivaara & Keskitalo, 2016). In this chapter, we will first examine the folk schooling history and the school history. We will describe the context in which Sámi history has evolved and will present today’s situation. Then we will look at the ideological processes the Sámi have faced. We try to find solutions to enact in a post-assimilationist era through the Sámi education philosophy. Our examples and solutions to Sámi education are based on our former research about people’s experiences within the Sámi language situation and schooling contexts. Our focus of concentration is mostly in Finland. We describe the church and school processes used with the Sámi, combine the different school history results and explain the ideological basis of the assimilation. We employ people’s experiences regarding school and life in multiple contexts in Finland. In the end, we suggest how the Sámi and indigenous education could remedy the long, hard historical results. In this context, mediating structures are presented alongside issues regarding mediating Sámi education. The Sámi people live in the mid and northern areas of Sweden and Norway, in the north of Finland and in Russia’s Kola Peninsula. The Sámi are recognised as indigenous peoples and are thus protected under various international conventions guaranteeing their rights. However, there is no universal definition of the concept of indigenous peoples. This concept was created for international agreements applied to certain populations and communities in certain areas. Often indigenous peoples are referred to as the disadvantaged descendants of the peoples that inhabited a territory prior to colonisation or to the formation of the existing state (Joona, 2012; P. Keskitalo et al,. Sarivaara et al., 2013). There are approximately 100,000 Sámi, depending on the definition criteria applied (Sarivaara, 2012). The Sámi were previously known as the Lappish, although this word has now been replaced by the Sámi’s own name, the Sámi people (sápmelaččat). According to current estimates, the Sámi languages developed, at the latest, during the second millennium BC, and during that period, Sámi culture was also seen to arise (Aikio, 2004, 2012). Sámi livelihoods have traditionally been based on nature-sustainable usage. Hence, originating from hunter-gatherer tribes, Sámi people have been involved in fishing, hunting and seminomadic reindeer herding. However, only about 10% of the Sámi are currently connected to reindeer herding (Solbakk, 2006). Today the Sámi are part of the globalised world and its various cultural flows (Seurujärvi-Kari, 2011, 2012). Rauna Kuokkanen states that “for indigenous peoples around the world, economic globalisation is not merely a question of marginalisation but it represents a multifaceted attack on the very foundation of their existence” (2008, p. 216).
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Indigenous Sámi, the Swedish Nation-State and Islam
Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2019
Both in a European and global context, Norway and Sweden are seen as being among the most tolerant and accepting nations in terms of different world views, ideologies and cultures, evidenced by their willingness to voluntarily accept large numbers of refugees and to create a welcoming and multicultural environment. What receives less attention is the fact that they are the home of an indigenous group of people, the Sámi, whose traditional lands cross both nations. This paper seeks to actualize the Sámi both in a historical and contemporary context and show how their voice and their position have become relatively muffled in a contemporary discourse that is mainly focused on how nation-states should avoid conflict with new alien social norms and values, particularly those associated with Muslim immigrants. It argues that the Sámi have become ‘out of sight and out of mind’ and at the peripheries of society within contemporary debates and literature concerned with multiculturalism and identity despite their longstanding claims as an indigenous people whose rights have yet to be functionally recognised. Sámi, indigenous, multiculturalism, Sweden, Islam, religion, politics