On the shoulders of a perfect stranger: knowledge gap about the Indigenous Sámi in the Finnish teacher education curriculum

Abstract

Motivated by the growing discussion of the decolonial significance of teacher education (TE) and the problematic mainstream knowledge gap about Indigenous peoples, this study examines Finnish TE curriculum discourses that limit or enable attaining knowledge about and from the Sámi people (henceforth, ‘Sámi knowledge’). The topic is approached through critical discourse analysis and Susan Dion’s theory of the ‘perfect stranger’, a subjective position impeding engagement with Indigenous-related knowledges and reforms. The findings indicate that the formal curricula of the renowned Finnish TE perpetuate future teachers’ perfect stranger position by overriding critical and Indigenous perspectives with biased narratives and liberal discourses uncommitted to social change. Contextualizing the findings within the Finnish system, this study discusses how inadequate institutional support for disrupting the perfect stranger positionality leaves the reality of Sámi knowledge unsustainably dependent on future teachers and calls into question the education system’s capacity to address the knowledge gap undermining Sámi rights in Finland.