The Programme Subject for Sami History and Society

Studiespesialiserende utdanningsprogram

Programområde for språk, samfunnsfag og økonomi

THE PROGRAMME SUBJECT FOR SAMI HISTORY AND SOCIETY

Laid down as a regulation by the Sami Parliament on 18 October 2007 pursuant to the Act of 17 July 1998 no. 61 relating to primary and secondary education (Education Act) Section 6-4 second paragraph.

Applicable as of the date of establishing the regulation

The objectives of the subject

The programme subject called Sami History and Society aims to provide insight and knowledge about the world and life of the Sami people, to bind knowledge from history and social science together and demonstrate the continuity of Sami society. The programme subject shall provide insight into the historical background for the meetings held by the regions of Samiland seen from different perspectives, where cooperation, contradictions and conflicts should be assessed. In addition to this, the subject will provide a picture of the variety and diversity of living conditions and vital necessities within Samiland, of Sami traditions and how they view the world, and of Sami culture, trades, lifestyles and their framework of understanding. The programme subject shall also focus on the Sami people's relationship to nature and the environment in the present and past.

Sami History and Society is a generally educative subject that aims to help pupils be able to relate to their own past and present history, the society in which the pupil lives, and for the pupil as a creator of history and as a member of different communities with a responsibility for defending their common future. Insight into historical and contemporary processes is an important foundation for the development of Sami society and for the how the individual's own identity develops.

The programme subject shall provide the pupil with a foundation from which to participate in social debate by helping the pupil develop a knowledgeable foundation on which to consider the challenges presented by nation states where the Sami as an indigenous community and as citizens of the nation state live, and what challenges the Sami as an indigenous people and as minorities have within civil society and with their relationship to the state as a whole. The subject shall also help the pupil understand how colonisation and assimilation have influenced the Samis and other indigenous peoples, and provide the foundation for understanding the development of Sami self-determination and the rights of indigenous peoples around the world.

Through working with the programme subject, the pupil shall learn to relate to the meeting between peoples from different cultures, and learn to understand the relationship between minorities and the majority from different perspectives. Pupils shall learn about Sami values, and with these as a point of departure learn to encounter the world with an understanding of the ideas of fellowship, community, tolerance and respect. Different kinds of studies will provide the pupils with experience and knowledge about theories and methods within academic disciplines like history and social sciences. The combination of theoretical studies and independent work shall stimulate creativity, critical faculties, openness and active participation in situations where historical and social scientific knowledge and expertise are included. The subject will provide the foundation for higher education within humanist studies and social sciences.

Structure

Sami History and Society consists of two programme subjects: Sami History and Society 1, and Sami History and Society 2. Sami History and Society 2 builds on Sami History and Society 1.

The programme subject has been structured into main subject areas, for which competence aims have been formulated.The main subject areas complement each other, and should be viewed in relation to one another.

Overview of the main subject areas:

Teaching hours

Teaching hours are given in 60-minute units.

Sami History and Society 1 amounts to 140 teaching hours per year.

Sami History and Society 2 amounts to 140 teaching hours per year.

Main subject areas

Sami History and Society 1

The People, their Settlements and Lifestyles

The main subject area called The People, their Settlements and Lifestyles covers ethnic groups,settlement patterns, lifestyles and regional trades around Samiland from the end of the Early Bronze Age (the thousand years leading up to common time) up to the present. This main subject area deals with diversity and variation within society, the use of resources, and different ways of living. Analyses of strategies for continuity, reorganization and development in the future are included in this main subject area.

Colonisation and Assimilation

The main subject area called Colonisation and Assimilation covers issued related to colonisation and assimilation of the different Sami peoples and other minority groups, and it also deals with meetings between the Samis and other ethnic groups such as are found in written sources, literature, legends, myths and folk tales. This main subject area covers trends from the history of ideas, artful interventions and actions by extrinsic groups, the manipulation of regional borders, development and growth of the different nation states, and how these are seen historically in relation to the Sami peoples and other minorities. This subject area also covers reviewing what has happened in Samiland compared to developments in other parts of the world.

Traditions and Frameworks of Understanding

The main subject area called Traditions and Frameworks of Understanding deals with the variation and diversity of Sami traditions, their ways of looking at the world, their values and their frameworks for understanding the world. This main subject area covers Sami society, kinship, family lineage, family and gender roles, and the reciprocal influences and interaction between the Samis and neighbouring peoples.

Sami History and Society 2

The Samis, Nature and Environment

The main subject area called The Samis, Nature and Environment covers how the Sami understand their natural surroundings and how their natural surroundings and landscape form the foundations for ways of living and identity. This main subject area deals with the Samis and their relationship to nature in the past and present, and compares this with the way neighbouring peoples relate to nature. Collective and individual rights for how the Sami may use or own property is included in this main subject area.

Vitalisation and Self-determination

The main subject area called Vitalisation and Self-determination covers self-determination from the perspective of indigenous peoples. This main subject area deals with the growth and development of the Sami political movement and the historical background for establishing the Sami Parliaments (Sametingene) in Norway, Sweden and Finland. This main subject area covers different processes within Samiland like vitalisation, the organization of Sami institutions, exemplifying the relationship between the indigenous minorities and the majority society, and questions regarding the legal rights of these peoples. In addition to this, the main subject area deals with the Norwegian authorities' and international society's response to these processes. International cooperation among indigenous communities is included in this main subject area.

Theory and Method

The main subject area called Theory and Method covers an introduction into the theories and methods used in the historical and social sciences and an analysis of developments in research on questions of aboriginalism. This main subject area deals with the ethical challenges related to social research, especially where the Sami and other indigenous peoples are concerned, and about the relationship between scientific knowledge and the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities. Formulating problems within the social sciences and limiting, preparing and presenting these with a point of departure in the Sami situation is included in this main subject area.

Basic skills

Basic skills are integrated into the competence aims for this course in areas where they contribute to the development of and are a part of basic subject competence. In Sami History and Society, basic skills are understood as follows:

Being able to express oneself orally in the subjectinvolves presenting themes from academic history and the social sciences so that one's presentation is understood by others.It also means talking about and discussing historical presentations and topical questions about social conditions and society, and stating the reasons for one's point of view and attitudes based on informed knowledge. This involves giving an account of the concepts and their nuances, and stating the reasoning behind one's own point of view when encountering the viewpoints and opinions of others. This also involves listening and responding to others.

Being able to express oneself in writing in the subject involves presenting text in a clear and structured manner consisting of a varied vocabulary and use of the subject's central concepts in one's own written work. This means formulating academic problems to be addressed, and discussing and elaborating on these using different types of historical material, and evaluating them in relation to current topical themes from the social sciences. This also involves being able to use writing to summarise oral traditions and to evaluate the effectiveness of one's own written presentations and the presentations of others.

Being able to read in the subject involves extending one's vocabulary and understanding concepts by reading texts on the subject from academic history and the social sciences.This means understanding and interpreting the meaning and context of what is written, finding the message within the text and reading historical presentations with curiosity and a critical mind. Reading in the subject also means utilising information from websites, reference books and newspapers, and interpreting and drawing information from statistics, graphic presentations, maps, illustrations, pictures and historical material.

Numeracy in the subject involves interpreting and creating tables and other forms of statistical presentations and evaluating quantitative historical data. It means using concepts from the subject to describe times, amounts and sizes, and show interrelationships using figures.

Digital and computer literacy in the subject involves searching for and selecting relevant information from websites and evaluating this information in a critical manner. This also involves using different computer programs to analyse and prepare information, creating one's own presentations, and communicating and cooperating with others using digital tools.

Competence aims

Sami History and Society 1

The People, their Settlements and Lifestyles

The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to

• define and use central demographic concepts
• give an account of the geographic areas that comprise Samiland and the ethnic groups in the area from a historical perspective
• describe Sami population trends, lifestyles and settlement patterns, and discuss and elaborate on incidents that have influenced these developments
• give an account of the lifestyles of the Sami peoples and how they have used resources from a hunting and gathering society, until the establishment of primary industries up to the present day
• discuss the significance of continuity, development and reorganization in Sami society

Colonisation and Assimilation

The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to

• define the concepts of colonisation and assimilation, and give examples of these from Samiland
• give an account of the relationships between ethnic groups around Samiland from the Early Bronze Age until recent times
• give an account of trends from the history of ideas and the attitudes of different nation states about these states' politics and policies directed at Sami societies, other indigenous peoples and minorities, from about the year 1700 AD until the Second World War
• discuss and elaborate on how research may have been used in colonisation and assimilation

• describe how the national borders of Samiland were established and closed, how the Sami's Magna Charta (the Lappe Codicil) and other conventions that regulate transboundary activities were established, and elaborate on the consequences these have had for Sami populations

• compare colonisation in Samiland with colonisation in other regions around the world

Traditions and Frameworks of Understanding

The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to

• describe the Samis' ways of looking at the world with a point of departure in their traditions and traditional knowledge
• discuss and elaborate on the relationship between the individual, the community and society among Sami peoples

• give examples of and discuss and elaborate on Sami customs, habits and values
• give an account of the principles for and changes to Sami child-rearing and socialisation
• give an account of the changes in distribution of work between men and women in Sami society
• describe the main features of social organization among the Sami people, and explain the differences in social organization in Sami communities and neighbouring indigenous communities
• discuss and elaborate on how interaction between the Sami and neighbouring populations can lead to reciprocal influence
• reflect on what is involved for the Sami people to be equal members of civil society and within the nation state as a whole
• discuss and elaborate on texts that show different understandings of who the Sami and other indigenous peoples are, and evaluate whether these different understandings can be related to academic and cultural backgrounds

Sami History and Society 2

The Samis, Nature and Environment

The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to

• describe the traditional Sami understanding of nature and their surrounding countryside, and discuss and elaborate on how this understanding forms the basis for their lifestyles, sense of belonging and personal identity
• provide examples of central Sami terminology for nature and discuss and elaborate on the relationship between traditional indigenous and scientific knowledge
• give an account of the collective and individual user and ownership rights of the Sami people, and compare these with similar rights of neighbouring peoples
• describe and discuss the Samis and their relationship to nature in the past and present, and compares this with the way neighbouring peoples relate to nature
• give examples of traditional knowledge from different Sami regions, and discuss and elaborate on the significance of such knowledge for utilising natural resources, their adaptation to different trades, and business activities and ways of living

Vitalisation and Self-determination

The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to

• give an account of how Sami organizations and institutions were created and organized from about 1900 AD until the present day, and give examples of vitalisation processes
• describe the development of the nation state's attitudes toward, and politics for, the Sami peoples and national minorities after the Second World War, and discuss and elaborate on the background for these developments
• place the Sami parliaments within the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish political systems, and give an account of the background, legal basis, establishment, functions and organizing of these
• give an account of the formal and informal power structures relative to the Sami parliaments

• discuss and elaborate on Sami pan-political cooperation across national borders and the status of Sami rights within the different nation states
• give an account of the background for and main items from Section 110a of the Norwegian Constitution, the Sami Act and the Finnmark Act

• discuss and elaborate on the relationships between ideology and political processes in Samiland and Sami participation in work with indigenous communities in and outside of the UN system
• give an account of the status for and main items of the United Nations Declaration and Convention on the rights of indigenous peoples

Theory and Method

The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to

• give an account of the basic characteristics of theories and methods from academic history and the social sciences
• delimit, prepare, formulate and present problems in the social sciences related to the Sami people
• give an account of developments in research about Sami questions
• evaluate the ethical challenges related to research in history and social sciences, especially where the Sami and other indigenous peoples are concerned
• explain how social researchers can be influenced by their own academic and cultural backgrounds, and discuss the problems related to objectivity within social research
• discuss and elaborate on the legal aspects of the rights regarding the use of indigenous people's traditional knowledge within research
• discuss and elaborate on the relationship between traditional knowledge among indigenous peoples and scientific knowledge

Assessment