D4 Published development or research report or study
”Paljon on tehty, mutta paljon on vielä kehitettävää” : saamen kielten etäyhteyksiä hyödyntävän opetuspilotin arviointi 2022 (2023)

Härmälä, M., Sarivaara, E., Laihonen, P., & Huhtanen, M. (2023). ”Paljon on tehty, mutta paljon on vielä kehitettävää” : saamen kielten etäyhteyksiä hyödyntävän opetuspilotin arviointi 2022. Kansallinen koulutuksen arviointikeskus. Julkaisut / Kansallinen koulutuksen arviointikeskus, 3:2023. https://karvi.fi/publication/paljon-on-tehty-mutta-paljon-on-viela-kehitettavaa-saamen-kielten-etayhteyksia-hyodyntavan-opetuspilotin-arviointi-2022/

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Härmälä, Marita; Sarivaara, Erika; Laihonen, Petteri; Huhtanen, Mari

eISBN: 978-952-206-785-2

Journal or series: Julkaisut / Kansallinen koulutuksen arviointikeskus

ISSN: 2342-4176

eISSN: 2342-4184

Publication year: 2023

Publication date: 18/01/2023

Number in series: 3:2023

Number of pages in the book: 149

Publisher: Kansallinen koulutuksen arviointikeskus

Place of Publication: Helsinki

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: Finnish

Persistent website address: https://karvi.fi/publication/paljon-on-tehty-mutta-paljon-on-viela-kehitettavaa-saamen-kielten-etayhteyksia-hyodyntavan-opetuspilotin-arviointi-2022/

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/85253

Additional information: Tiivistelmä myös ruotsin kielellä (Sammandrag)

Abstract

The report examines the findings of the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre FINEEC’s evaluation concerning the effectiveness of a pilot project on distance learning of Sámi languages (1 August 2018–31 August 2023) and the impact of the instruction. In the distance learning pilot, two annual weekly lessons of instruction in the Sámi languages (Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi) are provided as education complementing basic and general upper secondary education. The provision of education is led by the municipality of Utsjoki and coordinated by the Sámi Parliament, and it is intended for children and young people living outside the Sámi Homeland who speak Sámi with their families. In age, the students range from pre-school pupils to general upper secondary school students, and their number has increased from 50 to 150 during the distance learning pilot project. The evaluation produced information on three main themes. Firstly, it looked at the increase in the number of students participating in the instruction during the distance learning pilot and the factors that promote or prevent participation in distance learning. The second theme was examining how the pedagogical objectives of the distance learning pilot were realised, and the third one was investigating the effectiveness of the funding model. Evaluation data were collected by conducting hearings, surveys and interviews. Additionally, Sámi language lessons were observed. Twelve education providers and 17 schools participated in the hearings. Three different surveys were drawn up, and responses were received from 47 education providers or schools2 , 71 students ranging from pre-primary to general upper secondary education age, and 29 guardians of students. Pre-school pupils and pupils in grades 1–2 were interviewed by their instructors, in addition to which seven persons working in different roles in the project were interviewed. A total of 11 lessons in Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi were also observed. When looking at the accessibility of instruction in Sámi languages provided as distance learning, it was found that participation in the instruction often depends on guardians’ and students’ personal initiative. Information about a student’s Sámi background and the possibility of participating in the instruction does not necessarily get across to education providers or schools. The reasons for this include the fact that only one language can be entered as a person’s mother tongue in the Population Register. On the other hand, it should be noted that most Sámi people have had the majority language substituted for their mother tongue due to such reasons as the former language and education policy in Finland. The distance learning pilot has, at least to some extent, raised awareness of the Sámi languages and Sámi identity as well as Finland’s indigenous people and its cultural features in municipalities and the daily life of schools. The clearest indication of the increased interest is the growing number of students of all three Sámi languages and the number of schools participating in the project. However, the number of pupils in each school remains small (in most cases, one or two pupils), which creates challenges for the placement of lessons in the timetable and instructors’ resources. If the Sámi language is regarded as an additional subject for the student, the lessons are placed outside the school day. In this case, the student has also been given the possibility to participate in the lessons from home, which leads to uncertainty about issues of supervision and responsibility. While communication and instructions have clearly improved over the project’s life cycle, information activities should be developed further to improve the accessibility of the instruction. Additionally, education providers and schools need clear national policies on the instructors’ tasks and issues of responsibility related to the instruction, especially when the student attends the instruction from home. In the context of factors that promote and hinder the realisation of pedagogical objectives set for the distance learning pilot, it was found that the greatest challenges are associated with the different levels of students’ Sámi language proficiency. Because of the small number of students studying each language, the students are grouped by age, even if this did not make sense from a pedagogical point of view. This partly results from the fact that in the national core curriculum and local curricula, the content and objectives of the instruction have been determined by age group, not according to the students’ levels of knowledge and skills. Grouping the pupils according to their proficiency levels is now already possible in Northern Sámi, a language with more speakers and students than Inari and Skolt Sámi. From the viewpoint of students’ motivation and teachers’ coping, however, the possibility of drawing up a specific core curriculum for Sámi language instruction should be considered, in other words a Sámi curriculum based on students’ proficiency levels in addition to classification by age group. Differentiating the objectives by proficiency level facilitates the preparation of teaching materials and helps to maintain the students’ motivation to study the Sámi language in the future. Based on observing the lessons and students’ reports, the Sámi identity and culture are prominent in the instruction. Dealing with a certain theme, such as the Sámi Day, in different student groups and giving the students assignments that match their proficiency level is an example of a good practice. The students also like the Sámi lessons and feel they need the Sámi language in their lives. In addition to differentiating the objectives, another area of development in the instruction is student assessment. In interviews with project staff, assessment was identified as one of the problem areas in the project, and training and additional instructions for it were called for. In the distance learning pilot project, the students rarely take written tests and do homework. Consequently, the students mainly demonstrate their competence when attending the lessons. Students are given a certificate of attendance if they are present at 70% of the lessons. The effectiveness of the funding model raised many questions already in the early stages of the distance learning pilot. The evaluation found that education providers and schools need clear policies on how studying at home affects the funding. Rather than the funding being directed through schools and education providers, actors would like to see the discretionary government transfers being allocated directly to the municipality of Utsjoki, which coordinates the instruction. The availability of an instructor is also linked to the school’s resources: if the instructor must always be available during the lessons, the instructor’s working hour resources must also be clearly allocated to this purpose. To develop the funding model, it was proposed that the funding could be tied to the number of lessons, which was believed to also increase the number of students participating in the distance learning pilot. Based on the findings of the evaluation, FINEEC prepared development recommendations for different levels of actors and for authorities considering the continuation of the distance learning pilot. In addition to making teachers’ employment relationships permanent, key areas of improvement include clarifying the status of the Sámi language in the national curriculum. Additional funding is needed for the (distance) learning of the Sámi languages as we still have a long way to go before all indigenous families who lost their Sámi language as a result of the former assimilation policy have an opportunity to revive their language. A specific curriculum for the Sámi languages which accounts for the special nature of these languages and the Sámi culture is needed. In addition, the responsibilities of different actors must be disambiguated, a policy on the instructor’s role and resources is needed, and the funding model of the distance learning pilot should be clarified. Municipalities and schools should provide more information about the students’ possibility of participating in Sámi language instruction through remote connections. Training on competence assessment with special reference to distance learning should be provided for Sámi language teachers.

Keywords: Sámi languages; language revival; language teaching; primary and lower secondary education; teaching experiments; distance teaching; pedagogical objectives; curricula; indigenous peoples; Sámi people; language policy

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2023