Session Information
10 SES 14 A, Truth, Reconciliation and Sámi Perspectives in Nordic Teacher Education
Symposium
Contribution
There is a well-documented gap in the systematic treatment of Saami Indigenous issues within Finnish teacher education. Despite national and international commitments to Indigenous rights, cultural sustainability, and educational equity, teacher education programmes in Finland rarely provide students with structured learning opportunities related to Saami history, languages, or pedagogical perspectives. This absence limits the development of culturally responsive teaching practices and undermines broader goals of educational justice. The present study investigates why Saami-related content is largely missing from teacher education and explores how such content could be meaningfully integrated. Our data consist of a group discussion with teacher educators affiliated with teacher education programmes. The discussion focused on three guiding questions: Why do we lack Saami Indigenous content in our program? What barriers prevent its inclusion? And what changes are necessary to ensure its systematic integration? The data are analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings highlight structural, epistemic, and curricular factors that contribute to the marginalization of Saami perspectives in teacher education, alongside concrete proposals for reform. By articulating educators’ perspectives on both the challenges and possibilities for curriculum development, this study advances current debates on how Finnish higher education institutions can operationalize their responsibilities toward Indigenous rights. The results offer actionable insights and potential strategies for embedding Saami knowledge and pedagogical models across teacher education programmes in Finland.
References
Alisaari, J., Harju-Autti, R., et al. (2023). Finnish teachers’ perspectives on creating multilingual learning opportunities in diverse classrooms. In V. Tavares & T-A. Skefsrud (Eds.), Challenges and Opportunities Facing Diversity in Nordic Education. (pp. 109–129). Lexington Books. Dahal, N., & Luitel, B. C. (2023). Collaborative Autoethnography: Emancipatory Research for Educational Researchers. Journal of Transformative Praxis, 4(1), pp. 1-8. Harju-Autti, R., & Mäkinen, M. (2024). Toward sustainable and linguistically responsive support measures for recently arrived language learners. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(8), 3258–3274. Heim, G., & Bergan, V. (2024). Braiding Sámi Diversity and Sámi Pedagogy into Early Childhood Teacher Education: An Example from Norway. Education Sciences, 14(11), 1212. Korte, S.-M., Paksuniemi, M., Keskitalo, P., Selkälä, A., Körkkö, M., Anderson, K., Sarivaara, E., & Joona, T. (2024). Finnish pre-service teachers’ knowledge about the Indigenous Saami people. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education. Advance online publication. Mattila, E., Lindén, J., & Annala, J. (2025). On the shoulders of a perfect stranger: Knowledge gap about the Indigenous Saami in the Finnish teacher education curriculum. Race Ethnicity and Education, 28(7), 1157–1173. Somby, H. M., & Olsen, T. A. (2025). Inclusion as indigenisation? Sámi perspectives in teacher education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 29(3), 259–273.
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