Volume 19 Number 7 | April 8, 2018 |
Sámi Re-Imaginings of Equality in/through Extracurricular Arts Education in Finland
Alexis Anja Kallio
Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
Hildá Länsman
ArtsEqual Researcher, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
Citation: Kallio, A. A., & Länsman, H. (2018). Sami re-imaginings of equality in/through extracurricular arts education in Finland. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 19(7). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18113/P8ijea1907
Abstract
The Indigenized arts-based inquiry reported in this article addresses matters of equality in Finland’s extracurricular arts education system, as experienced by Indigenous Sámi artists, arts educators, scholars, and community leaders. Challenging national narratives of cultural homogeneity and egalitarianism, this research identifies aspects of this publicly-funded arts education system that function to create, or perpetuate inequality for Sámi learners. Employing narrative and joik as analysis approaches, we reflect upon these processes of exclusion in order to envision new possibilities for this national arts education system to not only accommodate Sámi learners, but to learn from and together with Indigenous arts, pedagogies, onto-epistemologies and ways of being to enhance equality for all.