The summit was very successful and had almost 50 participants – including researchers, students and practitioners from local schools. The summit was organised in collaboration by Nord University, Sámi University of Applied Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and University of Lapland, and it was part of activities of UArctic Thematic Network on Teacher Education.
The first day of summit included two keynote speeches by Ylva Jannok Nutti (Sámi University of Applied Sciences) of the topic on "Sámi Teacher Education or Teacher Education for Sámi students? Pedagogical pathways towards definition and implementation of Indigenous Education for equality and justice in the Arctic region" and by Arniika Kuusisto (Stockholm University) of the topic on "Growing up radical? Supporting children's and young people's worldview construction in societal education". After the keynotes, we had a panel discussion themed “Minority Language Teaching”. Topics the panel discussed were for example “What kind of benefits for individuals and societies of multilingualism and cultural competences can you identify" and “What challenges and possibilities do you see in education, regarding children’s diverse language backgrounds?”. The conversation was very active and lively, and it was enriched by comments from the audience.
After lunch, the programme continued with research paper presentations by Heidi Harju-Luukkainen (Nord University), Gregor Maxwell (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Rauni Äärelä-Vihriälä (Sámi University of Applied Sciences), Pigga Keskitalo (University of Lapland) and Asbjørn Kolberg (Nord University). The research papers covered the themes of multilingualism and inclusion in the north and in a global context.
During the second day of the summit, we visited Fagerhaug International School where we had a tour guided by the principle Cherise Kristoffersen. After the tour we had a discussion on how Fagerhaug International school is contributing and challenged by multilingualism, enriching cultural contexts and supporting social justice.
Read the original news at the UArctic Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity in Education website.