At the Margin of Educational Policy: Sámi/Indigenous Peoples in the Swedish National Curriculum 2011

Abstract

According to international and national legislation, the Sámi people in Sweden have the right to self-determination; more specifically, they have the right to form their own education. Current compulsory education is guided by the national curricula, Lpo 11. Thus, the curricula heavily influence education in schools throughout the country. In this paper, a content analysis is performed to explore the Lpo 11 from an Indigenous perspective, and it scrutinizes if and how Sámi culture, values, traditions and knowledge are salient in the curricula. The results show that the Sámi thematic only has a minor place in the Lpo 11. Furthermore, there are no knowledge requirements including the Sámi thematic in the syllabi. In relation to expectations in international conventions and national legislation addressing Indigenous peoples and national minorities, there is a need of a higher degree of the Sámi thematic in the curriculum.