Shaping a common pedagogical and didactic understanding through play and language meetings

After the Toronto meeting in May 2023, the Sámi teachers in the Swedish sister project, Play and language in Sápmi, started to talk about common pedagogical and didactic principles that can strengthen the language situation in our local Indigenous context. The principles that have emerged during the project are as follows:

• The feeling of unity and belonging (social cohesion) is a central goal of the meetings
• Living language is reachable – we aim at always using Sámi language
• In Sápmi on Sámi land – Always On-Land, never Off-land in our context
• Sámi spirit – we visit places that strengthen us
• Vuöllie/vuolie/vuolle/luohti – Sámi yoik and singing is our shared knowledge and tradition
• Locally adjusted prerequisites and goals 
• We focus on the potential (Ávnnastit attáldagaid = collect and cherish talent and knowledge)

These principles have been the starting point in designing action research activities together with the academic research partners. During the Fall 2023, the teachers and resource staff decided to arrange three whole-day Play and Language Meetings where learners and speakers of three different Sámi languages were invited. The meetings were arranged as part of the mother tongue tuition activities and could thus be arranged during a regular school day. Pupils who usually tend to the lessons online and are geographically isolated from their peers, were also invited to the physical play meetings. 

One of the goals of the meetings is to produce content that can be shared with the pupils who participate in the NOWPLAY2 project. We also wish to strengthen the feeling of belonging together in a context where the pressures from outside as well as from within the community are tangible and affect relationships in a negative way. Our play meetings have also offered an additional linguistic and social arena for Indigenous pupils who belong to the minority in their own schools. We speak about shared values and we also talk critically about the situations in which Sámi people find themselves when in conflict with extracting forces. Our pupils have expressed that, for them, it is very important to be able to openly be “themselves”, and that has been possible through our meetings.

Our inclusive and collaborative meetings mediate traditional knowledge as well as modern knowledge of the Sámi society. In the Fall 2023 we have done this by exploring the themes of socialization, connections/relations, and collaboration, exemplified by the following descriptions of the meetings:  

1. Socialization and Language Use

September 2023: Young learners of three different Sámi languages were brought together. The participants worked in language groups and gathered into one big group to socialize and share playful traditions. A lot of effort was put on creating a translanguaging space (Wei, 2011) where the pupils could openly show their Sámi identities and train their language skills, and to be creative and critical. A yoik guessing competition was arranged. 

2. Connections/Relations in Sápmi, Me and Others

October 2023: The Sámi young were invited to collaborate and share their thoughts and experiences about being Sámi in the modern world. Collective and individual voices got blended during the meeting. Differences and similarities were displayed and honored in the activities. We arranged a yoik action to support our sisters and brothers in Norway as they demonstrate against windmill parks. 

3. Collaboration (Co-work), Language, and Play

 December 2023, planned: During this last planned whole-day meeting the children and the young will explore life in Sápmi and produce their own films. A shared yoik/dance session will be recorded. During this meeting, the pupils will also play games and computer games with Sámi themes. The theme of the last meeting is co-work and collaboration as the Sámi young from different language groups need to work together to solve problems.

Our project was presented as the key note talk at Sámi Education Conference in Kautokeino on the 8th November 2023, link to the conference home page is HERE. 

References:

Wei, L. (2011). Moment Analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222–1235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035