Teaching in North Sámi received a very welcome boost
Students and lecturers in North Sámi at the higher education level have had the rare opportunity to meet in person through a Nordplus project. It has opened their eyes to a wealth of teaching materials they can share – and has helped build new networks.
By Joan Rask, journalist
The endangered Sámi languages need – and deserve – special support, as resources are limited and far too few people are trained to teach Sámi language and culture to adults and at Higher Educations. So says Pigga Keskitalo, a Professor in Arctic perspectives in education at the University of Lapland in Finland. She leads the Nordplus project, Sámi Language in Higher Education in Suburban Areas, which is part of the Nordplus programme Language.
– The Sámi languages are a central part of the shared Nordic cultural heritage. When we strengthen Indigenous cultures and make space for them within the education system, it contributes to fostering equity and inclusion. And it is also supporting the development of a more just and cohesive society, says Pigga Keskitalo.
The Nordplus project made it possible for teachers, researchers, and students from Norway, Sweden and Finland to meet in person, share knowledge, develop innovative learning materials, and build networks focused on North Sami education.
– This project has been deeply meaningful – not only for our university as an institution, but also for the students and staff involved, says Pigga Keskitalo.
Virpi Nurmela is Service Manager at the Language Centre, University of Lapland. She has extensive experience with international projects and is the initiator of the project.
– In the suburban areas in Norway, Sweden and Finland, there are very few people working on Sámi subjects or teaching within the university sector. As the need for both Sámi speaking teachers and Sámi language teachers is increasing, collaboration between the institutions is important, says Virpi Nurmela.
That is why they brought the following four universities together two years ago in a joint project: Umeå University, UiT - the Arctic University of Norway, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Lapland.
One of the representatives is Lene Antonsen from the UiT - Arctic University of Norway. She explains that educators and researchers from the three countries had previously only encountered each other by chance at conferences or while acting as external examiners for master's theses. At a practical level, there had been no transnational collaboration – despite the fact that North Sámi is spoken in all three countries and is thé most spoken Sámi language in the northernmost municipalities of the Nordic region.
Three nationalities – one shared language
In spring 2025, a large number of project participants gathered in Tromsø for the final of the four workshops within the project. Lene Antonsen and her colleagues in Tromsø hosted the group of 30 people.
– It went really well! The atmosphere was great, and we came up with lots of ideas for both new collaborative projects and shared teaching modules and tools, she says.
Part of the programme was held in collaboration with the Sámi Student Association in Tromsø, which has around 70 members. As part of the programme, two representatives joined the students for pizza. Together with the Association, there was also an evening event featuring traditional Sámi board games and folk singing, where the participants learned to joik – the unique Sámi style of singing.
– Several young people from the Association took part in the evening events, and the connections between the students became pretty strong. It means a great deal to meet in social settings and to observe that there is a community and a youth culture with North Sámi as the shared language. So even though the participants came from different nations, they discovered they had much in common culturally and socially – and that they could easily communicate in Sámi, says Lene Antonsen.
Most of the students in Tromsø want to learn Sámi because they want to speak the language. It's not about language history or comparing languages, she explains.
– Our students are often Sámi themselves or live with Sámi people, so they are very focused on learning everyday language, says Lene Antonsen.
We share what we have
One of the sub-goals was to explore the potential for shared teaching materials and to develop examples of these. At the outset, it was easy to imagine that teaching methods would be similar, but during the process some challenges emerged.
– We had to give up on the idea of having shared textbooks at beginner level, because Finnish students have already learned the grammatical system through Finnish. But in Norway and Sweden, we need to work a lot more with the basic categories of grammar, because they are very different, explains Lene Antonsen.
However, this challenge did not discourage the project participants. Instead, they came up with the idea to jointly develop teaching materials that can be used at the pace each group of students is ready for.
– All the four universities are in areas where Sámi isn’t heard much outside the classroom, so it was highly beneficial that students also had the opportunity to travel and take part in the project. It ensured that the new teaching materials would appeal to young people, says Lene Antonsen.
So far, five to six podcasts have been produced, along with a student book specifically designed for adult learners in suburban areas. All of these resources can be used across all three countries for many years to come. And from the University of Lapland’s perspective it is very positive:
– All the joint materials are beneficial for everyone. We also piloted a virtual reality game for language learning. We find it to be an innovative and engaging tool that helps learners practise listening, understanding, and speaking Sámi in everyday situations, explains Pigga Keskitalo.
Language is the Key to Culture
The Swedish partner is Umeå University’s Várdduo - Centre for Sámi Research, from which the Director, Christina Storm Mienna among others participated. She has researched the health of Sámi people for over 25 years.
– Unfortunately, I belong to the generation that didn’t grow up speaking the North Sámi language. I understand almost everything, but I don’t speak it, so I’m passionate about keeping North Sámi as a living, spoken language. And that requires training educators at all academic levels, says Christina Storm Mienna.
She explains that Umeå University has fewer Sámi teachers and lecturers than Norway and Finland, and that Umeå mostly offers online education. Várdduo’s participation in the project arose because no Sámi language teachers were available.
– So we are a minority within the minority! It has been incredibly inspiring for me to experience the education environment in Norway and Finland. I can see what it could be like – and I believe this project is just the beginning, guiding us forward to improve Sámi language education in many areas, says Christina Storm Mienna.
Pigga Keskitalo agrees:
“I’m genuinely delighted by how meaningful the project has been – and deeply impressed by the motivation and commitment shown by everyone involved. It’s clear how much we have gained and how much positive impact the project has had along the way,” she says.
Read the article in Nordic (Danish)
Coordination Institution
- University of Lapland, Finland
Partner Institutions
- University of Helsinki, Finland
- UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
- Umeå University, Sweeden