At the Margin of Educational Policy: Sámi/Indigenous Peoples in the Swedish National Curriculum 2011

Charlotta Svonni

Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Vaartoe/Centre for Sami Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2015.69091                

Abstract

According to international and national legislation, the Sámi people in Sweden have the right to self-determination; more specifically, they have the right to form their own education. Current compulsory education is guided by the national curricula, Lpo 11. Thus, the curricula heavily influence education in schools throughout the country. In this paper, a content analysis is performed to explore the Lpo 11 from an Indigenous perspective, and it scrutinizes if and how Sámi culture, values, traditions and knowledge are salient in the curricula. The results show that the Sámi thematic only has a minor place in the Lpo 11. Furthermore, there are no knowledge requirements including the Sámi thematic in the syllabi. In relation to expectations in international conventions and national legislation addressing Indigenous peoples and national minorities, there is a need of a higher degree of the Sámi thematic in the curriculum.

Keywords

Curricula, Education, Indigenous Peoples, Sámi People

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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