Sámi language teachers’ professional identities explained through narratives about language acquisition

Madoka Hammine; Pigga Keskitalo; Erika Katjaana Sarivaara

doi:10.1017/jie.2018.22

Authors

Madoka Hammine University of Lapland
Pigga Keskitalo Sámi University of Applied Sciences
Erika Katjaana Sarivaara University of Lapland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2018.22

Keywords:

Indigenous language teachers, language acquisition, narratives, professional identity, Sámi language

Abstract

Conducted in northern Finland, this study examines Sámi language teachers’ professional identities through their narratives of language acquisition. We focus on how teachers’ professional identities are shaped by their language acquisition process. The results are based on the narratives of nine North, Inari and Skolt Sámi language teachers. Two aspects of teachers’ narratives were significantly linked to their identities as Sámi language teachers: (1) their backgrounds (indigenous/non-indigenous) and (2) their language acquisition experiences (acquired Sámi language in childhood/adulthood). Indigenous teachers appeared to express their professional identities strongly despite their challenging acquisition experiences and were inclined to work towards the future of Sámi languages. In addition, non-indigenous teachers were willing to further the development of Sámi languages although they are not indigenous, which perhaps contributes towards the future of Sámi languages. Teachers narrated complex thoughts about language acquisition and their professional identity and helped develop indigenous language education in their respective indigenous communities. We recommend that teachers’ in pre-service and service education should prepare and support indigenous language teachers by sharing knowledge about multilingual education practices and coping skills, particularly to help the latter manage varied tasks and heterogeneous contexts. Thus, this research study shows that both teachers’ language acquisition experiences and their current work situations shape their professional identity.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ÄäreläR (2016) Dat ii leat dušše dat giella. Saamenkielisen kielikylvyn toteutus kielipesissä [It is not just the language. Sámi language immersion practices in language nests] (PhD dissertation). Rovaniemi: University of Lapland, Faculty of Education.

Aikio-PuoskariU (2014) Saamelaisopetus peruskoulusäädöksissä—palapelin rakentamista kansallisen koulutuspolitiikan marginaalissa [Sámi teaching in primary act—The construction of the puzzle in the margin of national education]. In KeskitaloP, LehtolaVP and PaksuniemiM (eds), Saamelaisten kansan- opetuksen ja koulunkäynnin historia Suomessa [Folk Education and School History of Sámi People in Finland]. Turku: Siirtolaisuusinstituutti, pp. 214–240.

Bamberg (2000) Critical personalism. Language and development. Theory and Psychology10, 749–767.

BarronA (2002) Traditional knowledge, indigenous culture and intellectual property rights. In Den nasjonale forskningsetiske komité for samfunnsvitenskap og humaniora (NESH) [The National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities] (ed.), Samisk forskning og forskningsetikk. Publiksjon nr. 2. [Sami Research and Research Ethics. Publication No. 2.]. Oslo: Forskningsetiske komiteer, pp. 56–87.

BishopJ (2012) She's always been the smart one. I've always been the dumb one: identities in the mathematics classroom. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education43, 34–74.10.5951/jresematheduc.43.1.0034

BourdieuP (1991) Language as Symbolic Power. (G. Raymond & M. Adamson, Trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

BraineG (ed.) (1999a) Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

BraineG (1999b) Introduction. In BraineG (ed.), Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., pp. xiii–xx.

BrunerJ. (1985) Narrative and paradigmatic modes of thought. In ElliotW (ed.), Learning and Teaching the Ways of Knowing, 84th Yearbook of the NSSE. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 97–115.

BudaJK (1991) Language choice. Otsuma Review24, 1–10. Available at http://www.f.waseda.jp/buda/texts/language.html.

BullT (2002) Kunnskapspolitikk, forskningsetikk og det samiske samfunnet. In Den nasjonale forskningsetiske komité for samfunnsvitenskap og humaniora (NESH) [The National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities] (ed.), Samisk forskning og forskningsetikk. Publiksjon nr. 2. [Sami research and research ethics. Publication No. 2].Oslo: Forskningsetiske komiteer, pp. 6–21.

BurgessC (2012) The role of agency in determining and enacting the professional identities of early career aboriginal teachers. Joint AARE APERA International Conference. Sydney. Available at http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544490.pdf.

BurgessC (2016) Conceptualizing a pedagogical cultural identity through the narrative construction of early career aboriginal teachers’ professional identities. Teaching and Teacher Education58, 109–118.

BuschB, JardineA and TjoutukuA (2015) Language Biographies for Multilingual Learning. Praesa Occasional Papers No. 24. Cape Town: Praesa Occasional Papers.

CanagarajahAS (1999) Interrogating the native speaker fallacy: non-linguistic roots, non-pedagogical results. In BraineG (ed.), Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., pp. 77–92.

ClahsenH and FelserC (2006) Grammatical processing in language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics27, 3–42.10.1017/S0142716406060024

CostaA, HernándezM, Costa-FaidellaJ and Sebastián-GallésN (2009) On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: now you see it, now you don't. Cognition113, 135–149.10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.001

DaviesA (2004) The native speaker in applied linguistics. In DaviesA and ElderC (eds), The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, pp. 431–450.10.1002/9780470757000.ch17

DaviesB and HarréR (1990) Positioning: the discursive production of selves. Journal of the Theory of Social Behavior20, 43–63.

DruggeA-L (2016) How can we do it right? Ethical uncertainty in Swedish Sami research. Journal of Academic Ethics1–17. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10805-016-9265-7.

GordonT, HollandJ, LahelmaE and TolonenT (2005) Gazing with intent: ethnographic practice in classrooms. Qualitative Research5, 113–131.

GuttormHE, KeskitaloP and BergierA (2016) Sharing reflections on the Sámi University College as a language (re)vitalization center. In OlkoJ and WicherkiewiczT (eds), Integral Strategies for Language Revitalization. Warsaw: Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw, pp. 607–622.

HarrellMC and BradleyA (2009) Data Collection Methods. Semi-Structured Interviews and Focus Groups. USA: National Defense Research Institute. Available at http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2009/RAND_TR718.pdf.

HartV, WhatmanS, McLaughlinJ and Sharma-BrymerV (2012) Pre-service teachers’ pedagogical relationships and experiences of embedding indigenous Australian knowledge in teaching practicum. A Journal of Comparative and International Education42, 703–723.

HellerM (1995) Language choice, social institutions and symbolic domination. Language in Society24, 372–405.10.1017/S0047404500018807

HermantoPN, MorenoS and BialystokE (2012) Linguistic and metalinguistic outcomes of intense immersion education: how bilingual?International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism15, 131–145.

HindleA (2015) How to write about your study limitations without limiting your impact? Edanz. Available at https://www.edanzediting.com/blogs/how-write-about-your-study-limitations-without-limiting-your-impact.

HintonL (2002) Commentary: internal and external advocacy. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology12, 150–156.

HintonL (2013) Bringing our Languages Home: Language Revitalization for Families. Berkeley, CA: Heyday.

HornbergerN (ed.) (2008) Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages? Policy and Practices on Four Continent. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

HornbergerN (2014) Until I became a professional, I was not consciously indigenous: one intercultural bilingual educator's trajectory in indigenous language revitalization. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education13, 283–299.10.1080/15348458.2014.939028

HussL (2008) Revitalization through indigenous education: a forlorn hope? In HornbergerN (ed.), Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages? Policy and Practice on Four Continents. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 125–135.

HuukiT and JuutilainenS (2016) Mapping historical, material and affective entanglements in a Sámi woman's discriminatory experiences in and beyond Finnish boarding school. Education in the North23, 3–23.

JoonaT (2012) ILO Convention No. 169 in a Nordic Context with Comparative Analysis: an Interdisciplinary Approach. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press.

KellyB, KiddE and WigglesworthG (2015) Indigenous children's language: acquisition, preservation and evolution of language in minority contexts. First Language35, 279–285.

KeskitaloP (2010) Saamelaiskoulun kulttuurisensitiivisyyttä etsimässä kasvatusantropologian keinoin [Cultural sensitivity in the Sámi School through educational anthropology]. Dieđut (PhD dissertation). Sámi allaskuvla, Guovdageaidnu.

KeskitaloP, MäättäK and UusiauttiS (2013a) Saamelaispedagogiikan aika [Time for Sámi pedagogy]. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka78, 99–104.

KeskitaloP, MäättäK and UusiauttiS (2013b) Sámi Education. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

KeskitaloP, NyyssönenJ, PaksuniemiM, TurunenT, LinkolaI-A and McIntoshL (2016) Saamelaisten ja Australian alkuperäiskansojen kouluhistorian erityispiirteet. [The educational history of Sámi people and aborigins in Australia]. Ennen ja Nyt3, 1–12.

KubotaR (2001) Discursive construction of the images of U.S. classrooms. TESOL Quarterly35, 9–38.

KulonenU, Seurujärvi-KariI and PulkkinenR (2005) The Saami: A Cultural Encyclopeadia. Helsinki: SKS.

KumaravadiveluB (2012) Individual identity, cultural globalization, and teaching English as an international language: the case for an epistemic break. In AlasgoffL, MckayS, HuG and RenandyaW (eds), Principles and Practices for Teaching English as an International Language. New York: Routledge.

KvaleS (2007) Doing Interviews. London: Sage.

LaskyS (2005) A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education21, 899–916.

LehtolaV-P (2015) Sámi histories, colonialism, and Finland. Arctic Anthropology52, 22–36.

LiljaN (2012) Kieli saamelaisuutta määrittämässä: Saamelaissyntyisten henkilöiden haastattelupuheessa rakentuvat saamelaisuuden kategoriat. [Language as a definer of Saami identity: the categories of Saaminess in Interviews of People of Saami Ancestry]. Puhe ja kieli [Speech and language]32, 127–50.

LinkolaI-A (2014) Saamelaisen koulun kielimaisema: Etnografinen tutkimus saamen kielestä toisen asteen oppilaitoksessa. [Sámi school's linguistic landscape: An ethnographic study on Sámi language at an upper-secondary educational institution] Dieđut 2/2014 (PhD dissertation). Sámi allaskuvla, Guovdageaidnu.

LinkolaI-A and KeskitaloP (2016) Keskustelua saamelaispedagogiikan tutkimuksen etiikasta. [Discussion on research ethics of Sámi pedagogy]. AGON, 2. Available at http://agon.fi/article/keskustelua-saamelaispedagogiikan-tutkimuksen-etiikasta/.

LiuD (1999) Training non-native TESOL students: challenges for TESOL teacher education in the West. In BraineG (ed.) Non-Native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, pp. 197–210.

LiuY and XuY (2011) Inclusion or exclusion? A narrative inquiry of a language teacher's identity experience in the “new work order” of competing pedagogies. Teaching and Teacher Education27, 589–597.

MacIntyreA (1981) After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

McCartyTL (2003) Revitalising indigenous languages in homogenizing times. Comparative Education39, 147–163.

MorcomL and RoyS (2017) Is early immersion effective for aboriginal language acquisition? A case study from an Anishinaabemowin kindergarten. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism15(1), 1–13.

MoseleyC (ed.) (2010) Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, 3rd Edn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Available at http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas.

NortonB (1997) Language, identity, and the ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly31, 409–429.

OlthuisM, KiveläS and Skutnubb-KangasT (2013) Revitalizing Indigenous Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

OutakoskiH and HornbergerN (2015) Sámi time, space, and place: exploring teachers’ metapragmatic statements on Sámi language use, teaching and revitalization in Sápmi. Confero3, 9–54.

PalmerD and MartínezRA (2013) Teacher agency in bilingual spaces: a fresh look at preparing teachers to educate Latina/o bilingual children. Review of Research in Education37.

PasanenA (2015) Kuávsui já peeivičuovâ. ‘Sarastus ja päivänvalo’—Inarinsaamen kielen revitalisaatio. [‘The dawn and the daylight’—Revitalization of Inari Saami language] (PhD dissertation). Helsinki: University of Helsinki.

PavlenkoA and BlackledgeA (eds) (2004) Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

PenningtonMC and RichardsJC (2016) Teacher identity in language teaching: integrating personal, contextual, and professional factors. RELC47, 5–23. Available at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0033688216631219.

PennycookA (1994) The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman.

PennycookA (2001) Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

PhillipsonR (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

PietikäinenS (2008a) Broadcasting indigenous voices: Sami minority media production. European Journal of Communication23, 173–191.

PietikäinenS (2008b) Sami in the media: questions of language vitality and cultural hybridisation. Journal of Multicultural Discourses3, 22–35.

PietikäinenS (2014) Spatial interaction in Sámiland: regulative and transitory chronotopes in the dynamic multilingual landscape of an indigenous Sámi village. The International Journal of Bilingualism18, 478–490.

PietikäinenS, HussL, Laihiala-KankainenS, Aikio-PuoskariU and LaneP (2010) Regulating multilingualism in the North Calotte: the case of Kven, Meänkieli and Sámi language. Acta Borelia27, 1–23.

PillerI (2000) Language choice in bilingual, cross-cultural interpersonal communication. Linguistik Online5. Available at http://www.linguistik-online.de/1_00/PILLER.HTM.

PolkinghorneD (1988) Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press.

PotterWJ (1996) An Analysis of Thinking and Research about Qualitative Methods. New York: Routledge.

Rahko-RavanttiR (2016) Saamelaisopetus Suomessa. Tutkimus saamelaisopettajien opetustyöstä suomalaiskouluissa. [Sámi education in Finland: Research on Sámi teachers’ work in Finnish schools] (PhD dissertation). Rovaniemi: University of Lapland, Department of Education.

RatimaM and MayS (2011) A review of indigenous second language acquisition: factors leading to proficiency in te reo Māori (the Māori language). MAI Review1, 1–21, Available at http://review.mai.ac.nz.

RasmussenT (2015) The Finnish school system: a taboo issue in Sámi language revitalization. AGON. Available at http://agon.fi/article/the-finnish-school-system-a-taboo-issue-in-sami-language-revitalization/.

RiessmanCK (1993) Narrative Analysis. Qualitative Research Methods Series, No. 30. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

SantoroN and ReidJ-A (2006) All things to all people: indigenous teachers in the Australian teaching profession. European Journal of Teacher Education29, 287–303.

SarivaaraE (2012) Statuksettomat saamelaiset. Paikantumisia saamelaisuuden rajoilla. [Non-Status Sámi. Localized Sámi in the margin]. Dieđut (PhD dissertation). Sámi allaskuvla, Guovdageaidnu.

SarivaaraE, MäättäK and UusiauttiS (2013) Who is indigenous? Definitions of indigeneity. European Scientific Journal1, 369–378.

SeitamoL (1991) Psychological Development in Arctic Cultures: A Comparative Study of Skolt Saami and Finnish children in the North of Finland within the Frame of Reference of Ecological Psychology (PhD dissertation). University of Oulu, Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. 8.

SelbyJ (2007) Working divides between indigenous and non-indigenous: disruptions of identity. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education17, 150–164.

Skutnabb-KangasT, PhillipsonR and RannutM (1994) Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

SlavkovN (2016) Family language policy and school language choice: pathways to bilingualism and multilingualism in a Canadian context. International Journal of Multilingualism14, 378–400.

SmithLT (1999) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. New York: University of Otago Press.

SpradleyJP (1979) The Ethnographic Interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

StewardBC (2005) Indigenous Teachers: Narratives of Identity and Change (Master's thesis). Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Education.

SvonniM (2008) Sámi languages in the Nordic countries and Russia. In ExtraG and GorterD (eds), Multilingual Europe: Facts and Policies. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co, pp. 234–251.

TanhuaS (2014) Kurjat koltat, siirtomaaherrojen uhrit?: Kolttasaamelainen yhteisö lehdistön kuvaamana vuosina 1964–1972. [Miserable Skolts, colonised victims?: Description in press in the year 1964–1972]. Oulu University. Giellagas Institution.

ValkonenS and Wallenius-KorkaloS (2016) Practising postcolonial intersectionality: gender, religion and indigeneity in Sámi social work. International Social Work59, 614–626.

WeiL and MoyerMG (2008) The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

WilsonS (2001) What is indigenous research methodology?Canadian Journal of Native Education25, 175–179.

YamauchiLA and CeppiAK (2006) A review of indigenous language immersion programs and a focus on Hawaii. Equity & Excellence in Education31, 11–20.