Sámi Educational History in a Comparative International Perspective

Otso Kortekangas, Pigga Keskitalo, Jukka Nyyssönen, Andrej Kotljarchuk, Merja Paksuniemi, David Sjögren, Otso Kortekangas, Pigga Keskitalo, Jukka Nyyssönen, Andrej Kotljarchuk, Merja Paksuniemi, David Sjögren

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030241117
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030241124
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Sámi education in a historical and internationally comparative perspective. Despite the cross-national character of the Sámi population, academic literature on Sámi education has so far been published within the different nation states in the Sámi area, and rarely in English. Exploring indigenous educational history around the world, this collection spans from Asia to Oceania to Sápmi and the Americas. The chapters frame Sámi school history within an international context of indigenous and minority education. In doing so, two narrative threads are established: both traditional history of education, and perspectives on the decolonisation of education. This pioneering book will appeal to students and scholars of Sámi education, as well as indigenous education around the world.

© The Author(s) 2019

O. Kortekangas et al. (eds.)Sámi Educational History in a Comparative International Perspectivehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24112-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Otso Kortekangas^{1, 2} , Pigga Keskitalo³ , Jukka Nyyssönen⁴ , Andrej Kotljarchuk⁵ , David Sjögren⁶ and Merja Paksuniemi⁷

(1)

Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

(2)

Department of History, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

(3)

Department of Education, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

(4)

The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

(5)

The School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden

(6)

Department of Education, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

(7)

Department of Education, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

Otso Kortekangas (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Pigga Keskitalo

Email: [email protected]

Jukka Nyyssönen

Email: [email protected]

Andrej Kotljarchuk

Email: [email protected]

David Sjögren

Email: [email protected]

Merja Paksuniemi

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

This book pursues two aims. The first aim is to critically examine the history of education of various indigenous groups, and the second aim is to build on the gained critical insights to examine the need for and possibility of future educational initiatives within indigenous education. While the focus is on the Sámi education, the scope of this volume is global, stretching from Asia and Oceania to Sápmi (the Sámi areas in Russia and the Nordic countries of Finland, Sweden and Norway) and the Americas, which in a way resonates with the recent trends in indigenous studies. Many researchers have called for a paradigm shift in indigenous research (e.g. Kuokkanen 2007; Wilson 2001). Shawn Wilson (2001) offers an alternative to the Eurocentric way of doing research using the major classic paradigms (e.g. positivism, post-positivism, critical theory, constructivism). According to Wilson (2001), an indigenous paradigm is to be found in the fundamental belief that knowledge is relational to and shared in connection with all of creation, including the cosmos, animals, plants and the Earth. Wilson (2001) continues and elaborates the decolonising tradition that Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2001) famously championed. In a Sámi context, the decolonising methodologies have recently been promoted and applied by many researchers, including Evjen and Beck (2015). In short, decolonising simply implies a shift in the researcher’s perspective. Whereas scholars of indigenous cultures have conventionally looked at culture from the outside, within the framework of certain methodologies, the decolonising of research aims at an insider perspective, taking the epistemology of the studied cultures as a starting point of research. Many of the chapters in this anthology stress the importance of decolonisation in the studies of indigenous education.

While Wilson’s (2001) notion of the new indigenous paradigm is tempting and promising, engaging in history has always differed from thinking about it in theoretical terms. Bruno Latour (2016) reminds us that a global view (not to be confused with Wilson’s cosmic view) is always blurred by our own limitations as scholars and individuals. As researchers, we are always affected by the places in which we live and work (i.e. by the epistemological contexts of these places) (Latour 2016). Hence, the articles of this collection are deeply embedded in their researchers’ political-institutional and temporal contexts. Thematically, methodologically and contextually, most of the researches in the articles ‘took place’ during the process of introducing the mass education systems of the twentieth century, with the inbuilt aims of nation-building and citizenship education. What is shared by most of the articles, however, is the goal of deconstructing these projects and their state-internal trajectories (also see Tröhler 2016). Our aim is international and comparative and includes a variety of perspectives from the more conventional history of education to the educational science articles which apply decolonising methodologies.

The chapters of this anthology provide critical constructivist reviews of the histories of education in various national settings and from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. Many of the chapters share the relational knowledge interest in the ideals produced by the institutions (i.e. the church and the state) which organise tuition, the institution of the school itself and those produced in researches into these institutions. The authors of this edition scrutinise the production of the competing state narratives and the empowering counter-narratives, which is one overarching aim of this book: enhancing the school experiences of the students who belong to indigenous minorities in their multiplicity of backgrounds and better addressing their needs by responding to some of the issues and challenges of the current education.

The main focus of this book is the history of education and the school experiences of the Sámi. However, a large number of chapters concentrate on the educational histories of other indigenous peoples. The comparative approach in this book pursues two goals. First, we intend to deepen our understanding of the similarities and differences of our international cases. Second, considering the design of the book, we hope that the Sámi cases will benefit most from these comparisons.

Histories of the Sámi Education

Internationally, the civilising dimension of education has been a central, albeit contentious, issue in research on the education of indigenous and colonised populations. The educational ideologies and practices targeting indigenous peoples have produced and reproduced biological, cultural and economic hierarchies. Nonetheless, the education of natives has in many cases been considered to be of paramount importance, especially in the colonised societies which often advocated the introduction of educational institutions. The cultural cost has been high and the coverage has been limited, leading to inequalities affecting educational access and benefits. Many studies have already established the duality of education: while education has in many ways been exclusive and assimilative, it has also distributed skills and know-how which can actively be used by the resistant subject populations or movements advocating cultural revival. Research has been a leading field in helping the development of decolonising and deconstructing criticism (e.g. Whitehead 2005). In the historiography of the Sámi education, studies on the state-Sámi relationships and education have in the past two decades been followed by more critical studies, inspired by the tradition of postcolonial and indigenous studies.

The critical turn in the Norwegian studies on school history occurred earlier than that in Finland or Sweden, with the publication of Knut Einar Eriksen and Einar Niemi’s seminal Den finske fare (The Finnish menace) (1981). While the book was chiefly concerned with the security policies affecting national minorities, the passages on both school institution and policies on assimilation dominate references to the book, which, despite some criticisms, has remained exceptionally influential in numerous readings and national debate.¹ Arguably, the Norwegian research on schools and the Sámi has been largely influenced by the readings and interpretations of this pioneering book.

The history of the Sámi education in Norway features prominently in a Nordic comparison for the extremity and longevity of the explicated and established state-funded assimilative policies. These language assimilation policies targeted the Kven (a Finnish-speaking minority in Northern Norway) and the Sámi pupils in certain districts, mainly because of national security concerns, and since the Sámi were seen as dying people who had to be brought out of their misery by improving their means of subsistence. This history of assimilation has become a structuring component of the Sámi history in Norway. It is still a sensitive issue that can spark off debates, the consequences of which will be the concern of the Conciliation Committee in the near future.

In Sweden, the Sámi educational history can be divided into two broad historiographical traditions. The fi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Sámi Schools, Female Enrolment, and the Teaching Trade: Sámi Women’s Involvement in Education in Early Modern Sweden
• 3. Out of the “Pagan Darkness”: Christian Education in Finnish Lapland
• 4. Narratives of Sámi School History in Finland: Assimilation and Empowerment
• 5. Indigenous People, Vulnerability and the Security Dilemma: Sámi School Education on the Kola Peninsula, 1917–1991
• 6. The Perspective of Former Pupils: Indigenous Children and Boarding Schools on the Kola Peninsula, 1960s to 1980s
• 7. The Development of Sámi Children’s Right to Learn Sámi in the Russian School Context
• 8. Sámi Issues in Norwegian Curricula: A Historical Overview
• 9. The History of the Sámi Upper Secondary School in Guovdageaidnu: Language Policy Development
• 10. Christian Morality and Enlightenment to the Natural Child: Third-Sector Education in a Children’s Home in Northern Finland (1907–1947)
• 11. History of Early Childhood Education in the Sámi Language in Finland
• 12. A Historical Perspective of Indigenous Education Policy in Japan: The Case of Ainu Schools
• 13. Indigenous in Japan? The Reluctance of the Japanese State to Acknowledge Indigenous Peoples and Their Need for Education
• 14. School Histories in Amazonia: Education and Schooling in Apurinã Lands
• 15. Revitalization of Oral History in Wixárika Community-Based Schools and Museums: Working Towards Decolonisation of Art Education Among the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico
• 16. A Community of Ako, 1987–1995: Teaching and Learning in the ELTU and Po Ako, Auckland, Aotearoa NZ
• 17. Education for Assimilation: A Brief History of Aboriginal Education in Western Australia
• 18. Conclusion: Promising Prospects—Reflections on Research on Sámi Education Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
• Back Matter