Opportunities and limitations with a land-based pedagogy in Indigenous heritage language education

Abstract

Studies have found that imaginations of a perceived ‘homeland’ plays a prominent role in much heritage language (HL) education. Taking Sámi HL education as a point of departure, I investigated the following research question: What opportunities and limitations can be associated with a land-based pedagogy in Indigenous HL education in an urban setting, removed from the ancestral homeland? This research question was investigated through an ethnographic study of Sámi HL education in public schools in a city in Norway. With an increasing ­number of Sámi students outside traditional Sámi communities, Sámi HL teachers need to reconsider what ‘area belonging’ should mean in Sámi HL education. The findings suggest that land-based pedagogies hold the potential to provide Indigenous HL students with an HL education deeply rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies. Nevertheless, this approach often failed to actively engage students who had grown up in an urban environment, removed from their ancestral homeland. I suggest that there is a need to develop a Sámi pedagogy for urban Sámi students outside the traditional Sámi communities, which capitalise on students’ complex relations and diverse imaginations of their ‘homeland’. Implications for other heritage language education settings are discussed.