NEWS In the beginning of November 2024, Björn Norlin and Anna-Lill Drugge were granted funding from the Swedish Research Council for their project about Sámi themes in teacher education.
Björn Norlin and Anna-Lill Drugge are both Associate Professors at Umeå University, Norlin at the Department of Education, and Drugge at the Department of Language Studies. They have received research funding from the Swedish Research Council for a project “Preparing to teach about the Sami: Modeling a new teacher training in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland” The project was granted SEK 4,359,000 and is expected to be in progress from next year, and three years on. In addition to Björn Norlin and Anna-Lill Drugge from Umeå University, the group consists of two more researchers: Torjer Olsen at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, and Pigga Keskitalo at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi.
"In addition to the four of us, we also have support from a larger network of many talented researchers, doctoral students and teacher educators active at universities within and outside the Nordic region," Norlin says.
Anna-Lill Drugge and Björn Norlin.
Image Mattias Pettersson & Ulrika SahlénThe project is a comparative study where the basic idea is to investigate how teacher training courses at universities in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland include themes that relate to the Sámi (and other northern minorities), how the training is organized at system level and institutional level in the different countries, and how this in turn affects the practical work of individual teacher educators. Questions asked are "How are student teachers prepared for teaching with Sámi themes in Norway, Sweden and Finland?" "What can we learn from comparing the design of the education in the different countries?"
"We are particularly interested in how teacher educators active in the field work in practice," Drugge explains.
The background to the project is that due to new guidelines for school education, the education systems in the three countries are currently undergoing changes when it comes to imparting knowledge about the Sámi. Another aspect is that all three countries today have requirements for teachers to teach students about Sami, while research shows that teachers feel that they do not have enough knowledge to fulfill this requirement, and that the teacher training programs have had difficulties in preparing them for the task.
According to Norlin and Drugge, the funds will contribute to many things, both on a concrete level and for future development in teacher education. On a more concrete level, the funds will be able to cover costs for data collection, analysis, and reporting, as well as presenting the research in different contexts, and of course also being able to meet and work together.
Norlin and Drugge also hope that the project will lead to better general knowledge about how teacher educators at various universities work with issues related to the Sami, what they perceive as good and functioning working methods and what obstacles they experience.
"This way, we hope that the project can help improve the teacher training in the three countries, support research on teacher education and indigenous peoples, and simplify collaborations across national borders," they say.
Going from project idea to acctual research marks the starting point for stronger cooperation between the three Nordic countries as well as various networks in the Arctic. The project members all contribute with their knowledge and the study will create opportunities for cooperation between the teacher education programs at universities in the different countries. Norlin and Drugge also highlight organisations such as Umeå School of Education, the Arctic Centre (both at Umeå University), UArctic and The Arctic Six and their work in creating research and teacher education networks with an Arctic focus, and believe that these efforts are contributing reasons for the project funds being granted.
"All of us who will work on the project have met and started collaborating within these networks, and it will be very exciting and enlightening to continue the work", they conclude.
