This research group looks at Indigenous topics (such as cultures, languages, literatures, histories, politics, societies) in education, and how Indigenous topics are taught by teachers to pupils, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. It looks at what the curriculum requires of teachers, and how this is interpreted in teaching materials and in the classroom. Furthermore, this research group aims to impart new ideas and materials to teachers, both practicing teachers and those in teacher training programmes.

Members of this research group are currently from a wide variety of sections at ILU (English, Pedagogy, and Norwegian), alongside members working within teacher education in other institutions in Norway and Finland. If you are interested in more information about this group, please email the leader, Helen Margaret Murray.

Group activities

• Organizing seminars online and on campus each term for students and employees at institutions represented in the research group on diverse Indigenous topics in education.
• Creation and development of open module “Sami Topics in School”, 7.5 student points, starting autumn 2021.
• Arranging weekend course and follow-up practice sessions in the local Sami language, Åarjelsaemien, at ILU. Encouraging awareness of and use of the Sámi languages at institutions represented in the group.
• Encouraging and supporting FOU and Masters students working with Indigenous topics in their theses.
• Developing networks and working with other academic institutions in Norway and internationally through applications for funding, guest lectures and arranging seminars.
• Cooperation with other research groups at ILU.
• Guest presentations at courses and in other educational settings for teachers and students.
• Development and dissemination of teaching materials and approaches to teaching through newspapers, magazines, journals and in online forums.
• Writing and publication of articles (see selected publications below).
• Taking part in conferences and organizing panels on Indigenous topics in education within Norway and internationally.

Selected publications by group members

Bakken. A.S. (2021). Introducing critical literacy and multimodal perspectives into film pedagogies for the EAL classroom. In S. Ørevik & S. Diamantopoulou (eds). Multimodality and English: Affordances of multimodal texts in the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Routledge.

Berthelin, Signe Rix. (2021) Samisk språk og tekst i norskdidaktikken – oppdagelse og opplevelse. Acta Didactica Norden (ADNO). vol. 15 (1).

Eriksen, Kristin Gregers; Svendsen, Stine H. Bang. (2020) Decolonial Options in Education – Interrupting Coloniality and Inviting Alternative Conversations. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE). vol. 1 (4).

Eggen, Renate B. (2022). Indigeneity versus diversity. Human Rights Education Review, 5(1), 136–155.

Eggen, Renate B.(2021). Fagets historie. In Fuglseth, K. & Skrefsrud T.-A. (Eds). Innføring I KRLE-didaktikk (s. 40-60) IKO Forlaget, Prismet fagbok.

Eggen, Renate B. (under utgivelse). ILO-konvensjon nr. 169 og Rammeplan for barnehagen 2017. In Nutti, Y.J. Indigenous Teaching Stories. Dieđut.

García Zarranz, L. (2021). New literatures: Canada (journal articles). The Year’s Work in English Studies, 100(1). Oxford University Press. 1271-1281.

Murray, Helen Margaret. (2022) Teaching about Indigenous peoples in the EFL classroom: Practical approaches to the development of intercultural competence. TESOL Journal (TJ).

Murray, Helen Margaret. (2021) Intercultural Competence in the Curriculum and in Textbooks—Which Lessons Can Be Learnt from EFL Textbooks in Norwegian Schools?. In Victoria & Sangiamchit (eds). Interculturality and the English Language Classroom.

Stokke, Ruth Seierstad; Karlsen, Silje Solheim (2021). 'Så den fremmede ikke blir mer fremmed.' Samisk lyrikk i norskfaget. Norsk Litterær Årbok. Vol. 1.

Stokke, Ruth Seierstad (2020). Natureculture in a Stallo tale: Harmonious dwelling or troubling postequilibrium? The picturebook Sølvmånen by Sissel Horndal (2015). Barnelitterært forskningstidsskrift. Vol. 11.

Svendsen, Stine H. Bang. (2021) Saami Women at the Threshold of Disappearance: Elsa Laula Renberg (1877–1931) and Karin Stenberg’s (1884–1969) Challenges to Nordic Feminism. I: Decolonizing Feminisms in the Nordic Region. Neoliberalism, Nationalism and Decolonial Critique. Palgrave Macmillan s. 155-176