Eatnama Mánát Skuvlema Bálgáid alde: Strengthening Sámi Children’s Identity and Resilience by Transforming Educational Institutions

The research project focuses on improving education for Sámi children. The goal is to reshape how education is delivered in Sámi Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), primary schools, and teacher training, helping Sámi children strengthen their identities and build resilience. The aim is to embrace Sámi culture by incorporating traditions and knowledge into teaching, creating a supportive environment where children can celebrate their heritage. The research will also promote understanding by exploring how education can foster reconciliation and respect for Sámi and Indigenous rights while supporting sustainability. To connect with the community, the researchers will spend time in Sámi early childhood, school and teacher training settings, observing daily life, engaging in conversations, and running workshops to understand their needs better. A strong connection with the land is vital for Sámi culture and health, and the reseach wants to support revitalization of this connection, recognizing its importance. In addition, the researchers will analyze current educational practices and policies to see how they include land-based education and reflect the aspirations of Sámi teachers for the future. The research work is based on a model that encourages awareness, respect for culture, and improved educational quality. Transforming Sámi education creates a more inclusive and supportive learning environment that honors Sámi heritage and helps children thrive. Transforming Sámi education creates a more inclusive and supportive learning environment that respects Sámi heritage and helps children thrive.

The purpose of this research project is to explore approaches to transform and reshape Sámi educational methodologies in Sámi Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), primary school and teacher education such that they strengthen Sámi children’s identity and resilience. The research project aims further to study reconciliation at the levels of national education, Sámi and Indigenous rights and sustainability. The theoretical approach and methodology will draw upon Indigenous methodologies by creating a space for Indigenous ways of being and knowing on the land, thinking and articulating the world. The transformation process is central to the research, and we will engage with many Sámi ECEC and primary school institutions. This transformative process-oriented approach will be combined with ethnographic fieldwork. The researchers will immerse themselves in the everyday life of the educational setting and conduct observations, engage in dialogues, write fieldnotes and arrange workshops, in combination with critical analyses of educational documents. The participants will be involved in thematic analyses and writing processes. Further, the researchers will critically analyse the structures guiding education. This will focus on how land education is considered in these structures and on Sámi teachers’ wishes for the future of schooling. In traditional knowledge, connection to the land can be sensitive, political and private. Connection to the land can be unconscious and might need to be revitalised. Balanced ecosystems and ownership of and access to traditional land have been recognised as improving health status among Indigenous peoples. The analysis of the educational frameworks and regulations and workshop materials will be based on a theoretical framework for a transformational Indigenous praxis model. This model will promote critical awareness, reconciliation, cultural consciousness and so enhancing educational quality.