Official truth commission processes concerning the Sámi have recently concluded in Norway (2023) and Finland (2025), with Sweden’s due to conclude in 2026 (Szpak and Bunikowski 2021; Skaar 2024; Norlin et al. 2024). Across these contexts, inquiries have identified the historical role of education in assimilation policies and ongoing deficiencies in teacher preparation relating to Sámi histories, cultures, and languages, contributing to persistent intergenerational knowledge gaps (Olsen and Sollid 2022; Sønneland and Lingaas 2023; Drugge and Norlin 2023; Keskitalo and Olsen 2025). As a result, teacher education has emerged as a key site of scrutiny within broader truth and reconciliation agendas in the circumpolar north. These processes are generating new policy expectations, institutional pressures, and pedagogical debates, creating openings to critically re-examine how teacher education is structured, resourced, and enacted in Indigenous and minority contexts (Norlin et al. 2024) 

This symposium brings together empirically grounded research from across the Nordic region to examine how discourses and processes of truth and reconciliation are being interpreted and enacted within teacher education. Adopting a comparative and cross-national perspective, the papers analyse teacher education frameworks, curriculum policies, institutional strategies, and pedagogical practices related to Sámi perspectives and Indigenous knowledges. Collectively, they address questions of curriculum framing, educator preparedness, institutional support, and the impacts of political backlash. 

The symposium foregrounds research that operates at multiple levels—systemic, institutional, and pedagogical—and employs a range of qualitative and mixed methods, including interview-based studies, policy analysis, and curriculum research. By identifying both barriers and enabling conditions, the papers contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how teacher education functions as a site of historical redress, knowledge production, and political contestation in Nordic and circumpolar contexts. 

The symposium aims to advance research-informed dialogue and collaboration across Nordic countries, while contributing conceptually to debates on truth, reconciliation, and Indigenous education beyond settler-colonial contexts. In doing so, it seeks to develop context-sensitive analytical frameworks that can inform future research, policy development, and practice in teacher education across the region. 

Drugge, A-L and B. Norlin. (2023). “Teaching Sami Pasts and Presents: Complexities in Teaching Practice in Contemporary Swedish Classrooms.” In History Education at the Edge of the Nation: Political Autonomy, Educational Reforms, and Memory-shaping in European Periphery (ed.) P. S. Colla and A Di Michele (Palgrave Macmillan), 221–244. Keskitalo, P., and T Olsen. (2025). “Review of Indigenous Education and Sami Pedagogy: Key Tendencies and Notions”. In Girjjohallat girjáivuođa - Embracing Diversity: Sami education theory, practice and research, P. Keskitalo, T. Olsen, A.-L. Drugge, and R. Rahko-Ravantti. Brill, 35–58. Norlin, B., Keynes, M., and Drugge, A.-L. (2024). Truth Commissions and Teacher Education in Australia and the Northern Nordics. Genealogy, 8(2). Olsen, T. A., & Sollid, H. (ed.) (2022). Indigenising Education and Citizenship: Perspectives on Policies and Practices From Sápmi and Beyond, Scandinavian University Press. Skaar, E. (2024). The Nordic Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: A new TRC model for resolving historic and ongoing violations of Indigenous rights. In L. M. Skum, et al (eds.), Cultivating transformative reconciliation: Are TRC processes enough? Pickwick Publications. Sønneland, A. M., & Lingaas, C. (2023). Righting Injustices Towards the Sámi: A Critical Perspective on the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 30(4), 588-616. Szpak, A. and D. Bunikowski. (2021). “Saami truth and reconciliation commissions”. The International Journal of Human Rights, 26(2), 306–331.