Dreams of the future - perspectives on Sami children's experiences of sustainable development

The Sami people are the indigenous inhabitants of the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. This seminar will discuss and elucidate Sami children's experiences of the future and to interpret the meaning of these experiences in the context of sustainable development. The Sami children's vision of the future is made apparent with the aid of creative activity in the form of the production of drawings, combined with subsequent interviews. The drawings, made during ordinary school activities, are of children who live within the municipal area of Jokkmokk in the County of Norrbotten in northern Sweden. The children, aged 9 to 12 years, attended the same Sami School. The analysis of the drawings indicate children having three types of experiences - a pure Sami culture, a mixture of Sami culture and Western modernity and pure Western modernity. Subsequent interviews with the children showed their experiences were woven in a very rich tapestry of nuances and not clearly delineated from each other. An integrative analysis identified different themes based on the way children moved between the different cultural experiences.

About Gunnar Jonsson, Carina Sarri & Eva Alerby

Gunnar is senior lecturer and Eva is Professor of Education at Lulea University of Technology. Carrina is the head teacher in the Sami School in Jokkmokk. All three have interests in researching the learning experiences of Indigenous children of the Arctic.