Cultural Sensitivity in the Sámi School

Pigga Keskitalo is Associate Professor in Sámi University College in Kautokeino, Norway. Her research has focussed on cultural sensitivity of Sámi schools, and she has been acting as specialist for Sámi Parliament in curriculum matters. She is from Utsjoki, Finland and her PhD is from the University of Lapland Rovaniemi. Abstract Cultural Sensitivity in the Sámi School This study deals with Sámi education in the Norwegian Sámi schools. The focus is on the classroom practices and the linguistic and culturalcharacteristics of Sámi education. The approach is that of educational anthropology. The study also examines how teaching is arranged in practice, how it succeeds, and what kind of challenges it faces from the point of view of cultural sensitivity. The core of the study is intertwined with issues concerning the status, language and culture of indigenous peoples. The study is a school ethnography, the research material of which comprises questionnaires (N=108), observations (six schools), teachers’ interviews (N=15), texts written by pupils, school documents, and the researcher’s field diaries. The participants of the study are teachers in the Norwegian Sámi School and their pupils in the primary and lower secondary levels of the school. The teachers teach Sámi- or Norwegian-speaking classes.