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How Do the Sámi Culture and School Culture Converge — or Do They?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2012

Pigga Keskitalo*
Affiliation:
Sámi University College, Norway
Kaarina Määttä
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, Finland
*
Address for Correspondence: Pigga Keskitalo, Sámi University College, Norway, Hánnoluohkká 45, 9520 Guovdageaidnu, Norway. E-mail: pigga.keskitalo@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article dissects instruction in the Norwegian Sámi School and its cultural sensitivity. The focus is on the classroom culture of Sámi education: how Sámi education is arranged in practice. The core of the research is intertwined with issues concerning the status, language, and culture of Indigenous people in education. The research was ethnographic and the research data consists of questionnaires (N = 108), teachers' (N = 15) interviews, and the researcher's field diaries. The research showed that the Sámi culture and school culture do not meet: the western school culture dominates teaching at the Sámi School and socialises the Sámi School into mainstream society. The Sámi people's conception of time, place, and information should be emphasised in the teaching arrangements.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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