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The Sami folk high school started in 1942 as a school for young Sami that needed more education that the Swedish folk school or nomadic school offered its pupils. The school was managed by the Swedish mission society, an organization within the Swedish church. The school was successful but struggled with financial problems. The result was that a foundation with Sami representation managed the school instead after 1972. The following year was even more successful. The number of students increased, and the management could offer more courses and their curriculum had more Sami elements than earlier. However, there was also some conflicts during the 1970s. The largest one being the language boycott addressing the issue of Sami languages at the Sami folk high school as a subject in the school, and as an important part of the Sami culture and identity. This article describes the education of the Sami folk high school’s first 40 years with the help of a model for Sami pedagogy developed by Keskitalo and Määttä. The model shows that the education is to a large extent affected by outer factors—self determination, as well as inner factors—language issues and the curriculum.

Beskriver problematik kring deltagande observation i sammanhang där minderåriga finns, i detta fall skolan, samt skydd av forskningspersoner. Artikeln skildrar hur etiska överväganden förändrade ett forskningsprojekts metoder och undersökningsobjekt. Från en longitudinell studie, med framför allt klassrumsobservationer som metod, av tonåringars historiemedvetande till lärares och elevers uppfattningar om historia och historieundervisning och enkäter och intervjuer som metod.

From its establishment in 1942, the Sami folk high school included crafts as an important part of its education program. The Swedish Mission Society, who founded the school, not only wanted to educate Sami youth to better their chances on the labour market but also to give them the opportunity to get acquainted with their Sami culture. Thus Sami crafts had a crucial role in educational activities at the folk high school. With the help of Gert Biesta’s concepts, the article shows that crafts had a socializing function. The teaching strengthened the students’ collective identity and provided them with traditional skills and knowledge. However, Lennart Wallmark, the school principal (1942-1972), stressed the importance of learning crafts for other purposes. Influenced by religious thinkers, he stated that the students would also be strengthened as individuals: a process of subjectification. Moreover, the crafts lessons had a third function: qualification. Though the studies were not vocational as such, they could simplify the process of procuring the quality label bestowed by the Sami organization Same Ätnam to crafts of especially high quality. Wallmark and the teachers in crafts were important for the development of craft education at the folk high school. However, Same Ätnam’s ideas of Sami handicraft and government regulations were also influential. These inner and outer forces contributed to the teaching so that it, on one hand, did not change much but, on the other hand, was congruous with the rest of the society.

This thesis studies teachers’ and students’ conceptions of history and history teaching and aims to explain the importance of an interest in history among teachers and students of the subject. Research on teachers’ conceptions (e.g. Martin 2005) shows that the didactical question “Why?” influences the “How?” and “Why?” questions and that teachers’ thinking about their own practice is mainly influenced by their background and their experiences from teaching. Research on students’ opinions (e.g. Youth and History, 1997) shows that they enjoy history shown in films, that they appreciate museums, and that the preferred topic is 20th century history. In this thesis learning is envisaged as something individual but it is the learners’ social context that defines what is important, meaningful and interesting to learn. The research methods consist of a survey study concerning the pupils’ attitudes towards history and history education, and an interview study with their teachers about their teaching and their opinions about history in general. Nine teachers and their 217 pupils participated.

It is mainly topics from 20th century that are described as interesting by both students and teachers. The teachers had different views on the didactical whyquestion, which they described either as student oriented or subject oriented. Their views on why history is important influenced their teaching methods. The student oriented teachers stated that their pupils’ needs and wishes affect their methods while the subject oriented teachers said that they give varying lessons, and have a more student active teaching, but decide for themselves what teaching methods are to be used. The subject matter is influenced by the teachers’ personal interest in history, in most cases a Eurocentric political history. This choice of content, and the teachers own interest, are explained by the historical culture of Swedish society rather than the curriculum. The teachers state that exciting stories and dramatic events related in books or films were, and still are, important to their interest in history. Their individual interpretation of what is important and meaningful in their historical culture influences teachers’ personal interest, their knowledge, and the content of their history teaching. The students’ attitudes to history are also influenced by various factors, of which history education at school is merely one.

The Sami folk high school and the Sami languages 1942–1990

The Swedish Mission Society – SMS (Svenska missionssällskapet – SMS), wanted to improve the opportunities’ for Sami youth in Sweden and therefore they started a folk high school (folkhögskola) for the Sami in 1942. One of the aims of SMS was to help the Sámi to preserve and develop the Sami culture and languages. Over time Sami themes, the languages being one, became more prominent at the school. However some of the problems regarding the language teaching remained: the students wanted to learn different Sami languages, their linguistic skills varied a lot, and there was not that many students who wanted to learn Sami. Despite these problems, the teaching improved over the years and the Sami folk high school remained important for the Sami people during the researched period.

År 1942 startades Samernas folkhögskola (SF) av Svenska Missionssällskapet (SMS). Från år 1945 var verksamheten förlagd till Jokkmokk. Skolans mål: förbereda unga samer för det moderna Sverige och förse dem med fördjupade kunskaper i den samiska kulturen och fostran i kristna värderingar. SMS ordförande var boiskop i Luleå och organisationen var integrerad i Svenska kyrkan. Den prästvigde Lennart Wallmark tillsattes vid starten som rektor, en tjänst som han hade i nästan 30 år. Wallmarks uppfattning om vad de unga samerna behövde påverkade undervisningen. Där fanns allmänna skolämnen, och stora inslag av praktiska skolämnen främst slöjd. Efter några år anpassades mer efter planen för folkhögskolornas allmänna linje. Det innebar mer tid till med mer tid till teoretiska skolämnen. Samisk slöjd hade detta till trots ett stort utrymme i timplanen. Undervisningen i samiska var problematisk med få elever och dålig tillgång på lärare i de olika språken. Utöver undervisningen ordnades gästföreläsningar, studiebesök och skolresor. Den religiösa närvaron vid SF var stark och tog sig bland annat uttryck i strikta ordningsregler och deltagande i gudstjänster. På 1960-talet minskade elevantalet, trots åtgärder som att tillåta icke-samiska elever. Detta tillsammans med att Svenska kyrkan inte längre gav bidrag till verksamheten gjorde att SMS lämnade SF i början av 1970-talet. Då trädde i stället en stiftelse in som huvudman, där såväl samiska organisationer som företrädare för Jokkmokks kommun var representerade, en ordning som består än i dag.

I de nu gällande kursplanerna för skolämnena svenska, historia och samhällskunskap nämns Sveriges nationella minoriteter bland de centrala innehållen och i samhällskunskapsämnet finnsdessutom kunskapskrav. Dessa kunskapskrav säger att eleverna ska ha kunskaper om de nationella minoriteterna och deras rättigheter, men skiljer sig från de övriga eftersom det inte är någon skillnad för betygen E eller A. Då projektets lärare började använda kursplanerna från 2011 kom de att diskutera de utmaningar som fanns med förändringarna, lärostoffet om minoriteterna. Utifrån sina samtal försökte de finna möjliga vägar till en undervisning om minoritetsfrågor på sin grundskola.Trots att de hade få elever fanns det många faktorer att hantera, exempelvis en upplevelse av stoffträngsel och de egna kunskapsluckorna, men också elevernas uppfattningar och skolans geografiska belägenhet.

Tack vare medel från Lärarhögskolan, Umeå universitet samt Umeå kommun kunde en av skolans lärare arbeta med att skapa ett undervisningsupplägg som skulle kunna nyttjas av kollegor på den egna skolan men även på andra skolor. Därutöver undersöktes lärarnas didaktiska praktik. Undersökningen genomfördes enligt Uljens teoretiska modell för didaktisk utveckling med aktionsforskning som forskningsmetod. Källmaterialet utgörs främst av lärarnas planeringar och deras skriftliga instruktioner samt lärarnas diskussioner om sin undervisning. Det fram arbetatde upplägget är genomförbart, men undersökningen var problematisk på grund av personalomsättning och förändringar i organisationen.

I korthet beskrivs upplägget på följande sätt: I årskurs sju studeras de nationella minoriteterna isamhällskunskapsundervisningen. Eleverna får lära sig faktakunskaper om minoriteterna, men även begrepp som identitet, etnicitet och kultur samt hur ungdomar i sina möten med människorformar sin identitet. I årskurs åtta fokuseras en del av undervisningen i svenska påminoritetsspråken och de rättigheter som skyddar dem. I årskurs nio ägnas en del avhistorieundervisningen till studier av samers och romers situation under 1900-talet ur ett Svenskt och Europeiskt perspektiv.

Research topic: Swedish teacher education programs comprise a coherent practicum period for 12 weeks (30 ects) at local schools. Under supervision of a local experienced teacher, student teachers’ practicum involves to plan, carry through and evaluate teaching and learning with pupils. The role of the local supervisor involves support for teacher educators’ assessment of student teachers’ abilities (e.g. subject didactical skills), which has become a burden due to heavy written analogue documentation. When the documentation fails, student teachers feel the feedback as non-relevant, vague, or as low-quality supervision. The supervisors have for a long time requested a digital version of the analogue assessment document, and in parallel, the teacher education institution has sought ways to develop opportunities for equal and high-quality supervision of student teachers. Taken this background into account, this study aims to explore change regarding opportunities and challenges of digitalising student teachers’ evaluation of practicum.  

Theoretical framework: Cultural Historical Activity Theory is applied to analyse this change and the expansive learning such a change result in (Engeström & Sannino, 2016). Expansive learning is based on a 7-step cyclic process where the first four steps include the collective learning actions of 1) questioning, 2) analysing, 3) modelling a new solution, and 4) examining and testing the new model. In accordance with these four steps, the supervisors questioned the analogue assessment document, teacher education sought ways to develop equal and high-quality supervision, and the municipality asked for quality in student teachers’ practicum (1). The concept and the digital service Teaching Analytics (TA) was seen as mean to digitalising student teachers’ evaluation of practicum (2). Teacher educators held workshops in TA with supervisors and student teachers and presented a time frame (3). In practicum, student teachers and supervisors were asked to use TA (4). These four steps are further scrutinized through the concepts of stimulus, contradictions, and agency. 

Methodology: The study was based on a single case study design of 8 invited student teachers practicum at upper secondary school in a municipality and 8 supervisors. Three types of data were collected: (i) interviews with the supervisors regarding use of TA and with one school leader at municipality level, (ii) a questionnaire to student teachers, and (iii) visualisations of student teachers’ evaluation of practice.  

Expected results: The preliminary findings indicate that the digitalisation of student teachers’ evaluation of practicum provide opportunities and challenges. Municipality stakeholders indicate a vision of good and equal supervision for student teachers due to a standardised language in TA. Student teachers indicate challenges based on contradictions about the threshold for learning Teaching Analytics and limited skills about the approach and vocabulary to analyse lessons. A second challenge concern a teacher education perspective and the perception what could manifest a digital service of the analogue assessment document. Hence, contradictions emerge between the analogue assessment document and TA.  

Relevance to Nordic educational research: Few studies have used software as a service in the evaluation and analysis of student teachers’ practicum.