Sámi schools teeter between the Sámi and majority cultures

In her doctoral thesis Pigga Keskitalo draws on the methods of educational anthropology to analyse the teaching and school culture in Norwegian Sámi schools. Specifically, she applies the concept of cultural sensitivity to shed light on the status of Sámi culture and language in everyday school life and the curricula.

Keskitalo is with the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, northern Finland.

One mark of a culturally sensitive school is that it gives comprehensive consideration to different cultures in school activities, learning content and learning materials.

According to Keskitalo, cultural sensitivity does not feature visibly in the culture of Norwegian Sámi schools.

“Norway’s realisation of the rights of the Sámi people is the best among the countries where Sámi live. Yet the Sámi schools are still, in a sense, balancing on the boundary between the Norwegian school and the Sámi school: they are Sámi schools in which the teaching is dominated by Western school culture and Western educational theories”, Keskitalo notes.

Norway has had a Sámi curriculum since 1997. It is used in all the public schools in the Sámi administrative district – nine municipalities, most of which are in northern Norway – as well as in several municipalities in Troms County. These schools, known as the Sámi schools, may be Sámi-medium, bilingual, or Norwegian-medium, with the pupils and teachers in them representing both the Sámi and the majority population.

Keskitalo points out that the Sámi curriculum is based on the general Norwegian curriculum, meaning that school still socialises pupils into the dominant culture. This conflicts with the indigenous people’s traditional principle whereby the essence of education is to raise children to be bearers of their own culture.

“More than before, Sámi schools and curricula should emphasise the role of the school as a vehicle for teaching Sámi culture. In practice, the Sámi worldview and ideology, as well as Sámi values and ways to acquire information, must form the core of the curriculum and teaching”, notes Keskitalo.

Today, Sámi schools adhere to Western school culture and its subject-based timetable; teaching occurs mainly in a classroom under the direction of a teacher. Keskitalo recommends that the traditional Sámi conceptions of time, place, and knowledge should be observed in teaching methods, schedules, and the physical configuration of classrooms.

“The school’s working methods should be more pupil-oriented and the learning environments should encompass more than merely the classroom. For example, local people and nature could be used in teaching considerably more than they are at present. As for pupils’ skills in the Sámi language, it would be important to make the language more visible in the schools and classrooms”, maintains Keskitalo.

The critique put forward by Keskitalo in her study focuses on the system and structures of Sámi education, which in her view do not sufficiently realise the Sámi’s right to self-determination.

“The teachers in Sámi schools do an excellent job, but the structures of education do not support comprehensive adherence to Sámi culture. The practical problems in the schools will not be solved until the challenges posed by the educational system are met. In fact, a change in teaching practices requires that the whole society and community desire and are committed to reform”, observes Keskitalo, continuing that the Sámi should be given more autonomy in creating curricula and drafting school legislation.

“In addition, pedagogy drawing on the Sámi’s own teacher training and culture must be further developed.”

In her research, Keskitalo studied the contents of two Sámi curricula in Norway – O97S and Máhttolokten – which took effect in 1997 and 2007, respectively. She also investigated how the curricula were realised in teaching in Sámi schools.

The empirical material encompasses a survey of the teachers and pupils in Norwegian Sámi schools, observations made in six schools, teacher interviews, school documents, and the researcher’s field diaries. In addition to the empirical research, the background section of the study presents factors defining Sámi teaching, such as the history of Sámi teaching, the Sámi as an indigenous people, Norwegian Sámi policy, and the Sámi school system and curriculum.

The results of the research can be used in the development of culturally sensitive school systems, curricula, and teaching practices in Sámi regions and among other minority cultures.