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Norwegianisation policy from assimilation to integration of the Sami culture
Abstract
Norwegianisation policy from assimilation to integration.
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Tolerance and equality are widespread norms in the official policy of many European countries. The educational system is an arena which even more than others is meant to foster equal opportunities by giving individuals the opportunity to strive for social mobility through their educational performance. Despite this, young people from ethnic minority backgrounds experience different forms of stigmatization in school and higher education, ranging from feeling marked as different to experiencing more explicit racism. This article analyses young people’s coping strategies in order to combat or avoid such stigmatization. We will analyse the possible reasons why young people choose a particular strategy in a given situation, how successful that choice is, and changes in their choice of strategies over time. We will discuss how earlier experiences of support, encouragement and respect (or the lack thereof) inform the extent to which young people choose more approaching than avoiding strategies as a response to perceived ethnic stigmatisation in the educational setting. The empirical basis of the article is a sample of 50 biographical interviews with young people of ethnic minority backgrounds living in Norway.
Inherently concerned with the personal and cultural development of individuals, intercultural competence can be regarded as an inseparable aspect of bildung. However, while scholars have acknowledged the affiliation between these two concepts, what remains to be investigated is the extent to which notions of bildung are incorporated in theoretical models of intercultural competence. This is an important aspect to study because such models constitute the foundation for how intercultural competence is understood as an educational goal. The present article examines Byram’s model of intercultural communicative competence, which has been particularly influential within the field of foreign language didactics. The article investigates how this model corresponds to bildung theories in its description of the ideal encounter between Self (own culture) and Other (foreign cultures), and discusses the learning processes which may be involved. Relying on the theoretical perspectives of Gadamer, Bakhtin, Ricoeur and Klafki, the article argues that, while central aspects of bildung are evident in Byram’s model, they are downplayed through its emphasis on harmony and agreement. The article further stresses the importance of regarding conflict, ambiguity and difference not solely as challenging aspects of the intercultural encounter, but as potentially fruitful conditions for profound dialogue between Self and Other.
The concept of Bildung, sometimes translated as self-cultivation, is located at the core of an influential tradition of educational thought. A key question concerns the relationship between Bildung and interculturality. Drawing on Wilhelm von Humboldt and Hans-Georg Gadamer, and on the so-called transformative learning theory, Bildung can be interpreted as a process of transforming one’s meaning perspective in encounters with others. A meaning perspective is a set of largely implicit presuppositions underlying one’s habitual ways of thinking, feeling and acting. Confrontation with alternative perspectives can be an opportunity to become aware of one’s own perspective, to critically assess it and to transform it. Thus conceived, Bildung is closely related to interculturality.
If it has taken 100 years to norwegianise the Coast Samis, then it will perhaps take another 100 years to make us Samis again? (Beate Hårstad Jensen (29), Dagbladet 28 July 2001)
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