Teacher professionalism in Sámi early childhood education: Working at the cultural interfaces

Abstract

This article aims to deepen understandings about the potential for Sámi onto-epistemologies to contribute to a (re)conceptualisation of teacher professionalism. Sámi early childhood teachers work at cultural interfaces, where multiple expectations, interests, demands and goals are present, and where the teacher's task is to weave them together. The article generates four dimensions of teachers’ intercultural competence connected with Sámi onto-epistemologies to explore Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism in the context of cultural interfaces. The dimensions of teachers’ intercultural competence include: pedagogical knowledge and awareness; pedagogical skills; attitudes, values and individual backgrounds; and being active in creating change. This article highlights that implementing Sámi early childhood professionalism involves transferring Sámi traditional educational knowledge and practices to formal educational settings, which in turn holds the potential for Sámi onto-epistemologies to radically alter pedagogical practice. The authors argue that Sámi early childhood professionalism involves conscientisation as a process of awareness-raising, resistance and change. The article concludes by stressing the centrality of dialogue as a powerful method to reconceptualise and enact Sámi early childhood professionalism.

Keywords

cultural interfaces intercultural competence teacher professionalism Sámi onto-epistemologies Sámi early childhood education Guest Editors:Jayne Osgood Camilla Andersen Agnes Bjelkerud

Introduction

In relation to this special issue, this article aims to increase knowledge of teacher professionalism in the Sámi early childhood education (ECE) context to deepen understandings of how Sámi onto-epistemologies affect and contribute to (re)imagining and enacting teacher professionalism at cultural interfaces. Working at cultural interfaces demands methods that reconcile knowledge of both Indigenous people and the majority culture. The ideal basis for professionalism in the Indigenous context is that it should be grounded in Indigenous world views and knowledge, with some necessary elements of the majority culture integrated, negotiated and adjusted within it.

The United Nations (2025) declares that inclusive and equitable education and lifelong learning opportunities must be available to everyone at all levels, including in ECE. Within this global policy framework, the Sámi can exercise legal rights to maintain, develop and transfer their cultural traditions, practices and languages to future generations. The Sámi are descendants of nomadic Indigenous peoples who inhabited the region of Sápmi for thousands of years; they have historical cultures and languages that are deeply rooted in nature and Arctic adaptability yet tend to live in a minority position in majority societies. They can be understood to be caught in cultural interfaces, which we go on to explore further in this article.

Sámi children have the right to education that supports them as members of an Indigenous society within local communities that maintain and strengthen their Indigenous identity, cultural belonging and language learning. However, as Webb (2025: 34) states, an education system ‘serves more starkly than ever to reproduce and entrench social divisions and inequalities’. Moreover, Nordic researchers contend that ECE does not provide equal opportunities for all children – for example, children with individual needs or with minority linguistic and cultural backgrounds (see Johansson and Puroila, 2021; Ólafsdóttir and Einarsdóttir, 2021; Puroila et al., 2021).

Within this context, teachers in Sámi ECE are central to maintaining and developing Sámi cultures, languages and traditions by supporting Sámi children growing up in their communities and helping them to develop a strong sense of belonging (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2022; Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2017; Parfa Koskinen, 2024). Bringing Sámi onto-epistemologies into ECE is vital to this work, not least because young children spend a significant proportion of their time in ECE in Nordic countries. The literature (Jannok Nutti et al., 2024; Keskitalo et al., 2011) shows that teachers in Sámi contexts require additional competencies in their work compared to majority-society teachers in order to be able to support the fulfilment of Indigenous rights successfully. Keskitalo et al. (2011) state that teachers need special attitudes, skills, tools and capacities to be able to advocate sensitively and effectively in supporting Sámi children to feel a sense of cultural belonging. They go on to stress that teaching practices must change to meet the needs of culturally diverse groups.

Inspired by these views, we contend that Sámi early childhood teachers’ professionalism needs to be reimagined in ways that foreground and privilege the additional skills that are needed to make space for Indigenous world views, rights and sense of belonging to be taken seriously and find expression in ECE practice.

Cultural interface, two worlds, liminal spaces

In previous research, a cultural interface is proposed as a space where two (or more) world views and knowledge systems meet (Nakata, 2006, 2007). A cultural interface is also described in the Indigenous context as ‘two-level implementation’ (Laiti, 2018: 236), ‘growing up in two worlds’ (Fasoli et al., 2018) or an ‘unsettling both-ways approach’ (Fasoli and Farmer, 2015). It can be characterised as a meeting place with a ‘double perspective’ (Parfa Koskinen, 2024; Svalastog et al., 2022). It is also described as space in-between (Laiti, 2018; Olsen, 2022) or liminal space (Keskitalo et al., 2011). Following Nakata (2007:), a cultural interface can be understood as ‘a multi-layered and multi-dimensional space of dynamic relations’ where different approaches meet and are contested and compromised on both a theoretical and practical level.

As argued previously (Laiti and Määttä, 2022), teacher professionalism in Indigenous contexts is realised at the interfaces of Indigenous and majority cultures. When encountering teacher professionalism at cultural interfaces, new perspectives arise that call for careful attention to legal factors, cultural histories and research practices. Indigenous teacher professionalism is an understudied issue in educational research (see Fasoli and Farmer, 2015; Jannok Nutti and Hætta, 2024), yet teachers need concrete and conceptual tools that can be put to work in order to navigate ways through the cultural interfaces of Indigenous onto-epistemologies and dominant western/Eurocentric models of ECE.

Our aim is to (re)imagine early childhood teacher professionalism by foregrounding and privileging Sámi onto-epistemologies that recognise the tensions that exist in the cultural interface we have identified.¹ We propose extending the existing understanding of teacher professionalism by exploring teachers’ ‘intercultural competence’ with Sámi onto-epistemologies, which we propose holds the potential to respect and preserve Sámi people's communities, local cultures and languages. The central issues in Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism include transferring traditional Sámi educational knowledges to the formal education system, as well as transforming them into daily pedagogical practice through processes of negotiating between multiple approaches.

Sámi people and Sámi education

The Sámi, an Indigenous people from Sápmi (a region including northern parts of the Nordic countries and Russia’s Kola Peninsula), have traditionally lived according to particular cultural and societal systems but simultaneously as part of majority societies and cultures. This has fostered cultural resilience, character and skills to survive as an Indigenous people with a continued minority status (Aikio, 2010). Currently, the Sámi have national and international rights to maintain and develop their culture, languages and identity (International Labour Organization, 1989; United Nations 2007), and have the recognised status of Indigenous people in Finland, Norway and Sweden (Grunnloven, 1814; Ministry of Justice, 1999; Sveriges Riksdag, 2009). As an Indigenous people, the Sámi have grown through changes, historical periods and many kinds of confrontation, including colonising and assimilating processes and practices at the individual, societal, territorial and national levels. Colonisation has influenced the Sámi people's thinking, as well as their subjective, social and intellectual consciousness (Balto, 2023).

Throughout their history, the Sámi position might be understood as living within cultural interfaces; such positioning engenders unbalanced power relations between Sámi culture and the Eurocentric societies in which they live (Balto, 2023; Sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonen, 2023). Pressure to unify and assimilate stems from structures and mechanisms of colonialisation that represent a continuous threat to Sámi rights. Many Sámi people, including educators (Gaup, 2008; Laiti, 2025; Rahko-Ravantti, 2016), are caught in situations where values are in tension, rendering it challenging to decide how to enact and give meaning to traditional knowledge in institutional settings. For decades, this has been largely influenced by demands for standardisation in the majoritarian neo-liberal education system, which is characterised by a set of values that is at odds with Sámi culture and tradition.

Research has shown that Sámi education in Norway and Finland operates within cultural interfaces in which colonial structures and models of practice dominate everyday school life (Keskitalo, 2022; Rahko-Ravantti, 2016). At the interfaces of Sámi and majority cultures, the level of agency for Sámi teachers and children within education systems is low, as education for the most part is organised within the framework of the majority society. As a result, Sámi education is not established on its own premises; instead, it has been built on majority-society structures, values and practices (Keskitalo, 2022, 2025). Sámi people are compelled to follow the educational regulations of local education authorities, which govern the extent to which, and ways in which, Indigenous world views and onto-epistemologies find expression. Although Sámi ECE is organised and directed by a majoritarian framework, it is also partly implemented according to its own cultural and historical premises, which includes using the Sámi language and certain educational principles, content and materials (see Laiti, 2018). Approaches to implementing Sámi thought systems, values, languages and materials, however, are not adequately supported, and there remains a need for change to better meet the rights of Sámi people. Pursuing teacher professionalism that better encapsulates, embodies and enacts Indigenous onto-epistemologies is crucial to achieving more socially justice ECE (Biermann and Townsend-Cross, 2008).

Sámi onto-epistemological approaches to teacher professionalism

In this article, we propose a challenge to prevailing discourses and common understandings of early childhood teacher professionalism in Sámi educational contexts on the basis that they are narrow and fail to adequately encapsulate Sámi values, traditions and world views. Teacher professionalism in Sámi ECE directly relates to the maintenance of Indigenous culture and realising Sámi children's rights. Keskitalo (2022) and Rahko-Ravantti (2016) stress that this is not happening in the ways or to the extent that Sámi teachers expect due to limited funding, little support for teachers and unbalanced power relations – all of which pose a direct challenge to embedding Sámi culture and practices in meaningful ways.

It is our contention that there is an urgent need to (re)imagine existing approaches to ensure that Indigenous world views and understandings of learning and teaching practices can be given the prominence they deserve in ECE (Rahman and Cochrane, 2023). Indigenous people have ways of looking at and relating to the world, the universe and one another that are distinct from Euro-western approaches. The fundamentals of Sámi ways of knowing and understanding the world can be traced back through long histories of living on and with the land (Jannok Nutti et al., 2024; Joks et al., 2020; Kuokkanen, 2009; Sara, 2003). The Sámi ontology emphasises a holistic world view in which humans, nature, the non-human world and the more-than-human world are always in relation, forming a single non-dualistic system (Sara, 2003).

Relationality is at the heart of Sámi ontology (Kuokkanen and Balto, 2024) in the same way as it forms the reality of all Indigenous peoples (Wilson, 2008). Kuokkanen and Balto (2024) introduce ovttastallan (‘relationality’) as the main characteristic of Sámi ontology, which emphasises the significance of reciprocity, respectful communication and the reflective adaptation of activities. Individuals are understood to be interwoven into larger communities formed by networks that guide action from this relational positioning. In the Sámi language, birgen (Aikio, 2010; Bjøru and Solbakken, 2021) concerns life management and is a value connected to relationality. It refers to balancing and adjusting ways of living that respect reciprocal relationships between humans, lands, animals and the non-visible world.

Indigenous onto-epistemology is based on the idea of native science (Cajete, 2000), whereby the Sámi people have traditionally acquired their knowledge through direct experience in the natural world, in places close to them and through task-driven activities. Knowledge is cumulative and created collectively in connection with practical experiences and situations.

For the Sámi people, the main purpose of knowledge production is to ensure birgejupmi (‘self-sufficiency’) by embodying the principle of taking only what is necessary from nature and responding ethically to practical questions as they emerge through Sámi ways of living (Bjøru and Solbakken, 2021). Knowledge is continuously sought, produced and reproduced through the onto-epistemological tenets of birgen and birgejupmi. Equality, appreciation and communication are the core values that shape Sámi knowledge production (Kuokkanen and Balto, 2024) and are shared through traditions of oral communication, community gatherings and storytelling (Keskitalo, 2010).

For Sámi communities, competency corresponds to the capability of putting knowledge into practice, as this traditional Indigenous idiom conveys: ‘If one fails as a caribou hunter, the entire family is in jeopardy’ (Barnhardt and Kawagley, 2005: 11). Kuokkanen and Balto (2024) emphasise the importance of rituals and ceremonies to practising relationality. They describe the significance placed on the practice of particular ways of greeting, kinship systems, sharing coffee together and fireside gatherings. Another significant aspect of the Sámi culture is the conceptualisation of time and place/space, which departs radically from Euro-western conceptualisations (Mazzullo, 2012). Dominant colonial constructions of time view it through the logics of linearity and progress: time is understood to be a tangible, finite and measurable resource that flows from the past through the present and into the future – it is inherently monochronic and emphasises efficiency, scheduling and punctuality. Conversely, the Sámi concept of time is based on the cyclical rhythms of nature – yearly cycles of reindeer herding and related tasks of nomadic living that are, in part, governed by lunar phases (Keskitalo, 2010). These differences and distinctions between majoritarian, colonial, Euro-western conceptualisations and the Sámi onto-epistemological ways of being provide fertile ground upon which to reimagine ECE and reappraise that which has become so entrenched in pedagogical/professional practice through a neo-liberal standardised lens.

Taking cultural interfaces as a context for (re)imagining and generating teacher professionalism in ECE differently insists that it must be informed by Sámi onto-epistemologies as it emerges, always in relation to humans, places and the invisible world where knowledge is sought and produced in collective and negotiated ways. These elements have no hierarchy and are not segregated into categories; instead, they constitute a holistic relationality. Ways of professional knowing are linked to ways of being and the practices of individual and professional systems that teachers are connected to (Urban, 2010). This article explores Sámi ways of knowing and being, and the potential they hold for reconceptualising what counts as professionalism Sámi ECE.

Teacher professionalism in the Sámi ECE context

Teacher professionalism is based on a universal (colonial, Euro-western) understanding (Rahman and Cochrane, 2023; see Qi and Sterling Henward, 2025) that typically adopts top-down managerialist thinking and practice. In response to this narrow and prescriptive framing of professionalism, Osgood (2006: 7) calls for a ‘problematisation of the hegemonic discourses through/in which practitioners are positioned’. It is our intention to offer such a problematisation in relation to the hegemonic framing that works to position Sámi teachers, and their ways of knowing, in particular ways.

Sámi teachers are charged with incorporating Sámi language, traditions and traditional knowledge into educational pedagogy and practice (Sikku, 2019). Such demanding work at cultural interfaces requires specific skills of negotiation and transformation (Lopes et al., 2023). According to Demirkasımoğlu (2010), transformative professionalism requires that early childhood teachers assume an activist positionality to action change towards more nuanced and culturally sensitive knowledge-building.

Sámi early childhood teachers work in diverse intercultural and multilingual contexts in their local communities (see Keskitalo, 2020), which requires a firm commitment to multiculturalism – a core cultural value on which Sámi ECE is based (see Sámi Parliament, 2009). Working at cultural interfaces demands specific intercultural expertise from Sámi early childhood teachers. Teacher professionalism that seeks to incorporate Sámi onto-epistemologies may thus be theorised as demanding specific expertise in working at cultural interfaces. For Sámi onto-epistemologies to better shape a renewed conceptualisation of teacher professionalism, teachers need to re-educate themselves (Balto and Kuhmunen, 2014) and use specific pedagogical skills and tools that, according to Parfa Koskinen (2024), are not central to their current practice in ECE. To make changes to educational practice that both validate the Sámi culture and refuse to make Indigenous values and practices tokenistic, a depth of understanding of Sámi onto-epistemology is required. As Smith (2003: 1) writes about the shifting approach in the Māori context, one important aspect in change is ‘consciousness-raising’ that puts Indigenous thinking at the centre to reawaken it. The remainder of this article seeks to map out how it might be possible to reawaken Indigenous thinking and make it central to Sámi teaching in ECE, and hence teacher professionalism when teachers are endlessly caught in cultural interfaces.

Reimagining professionalism through intercultural competence

We propose that teacher professionalism, as it is enacted by Sámi teachers, can be reconceptualised by thinking with intercultural competence (e.g. Bennett, 2008; Jokikokko, 2010). Intercultural competence and its dimensions have been variously defined (e.g. Bennett, 2008; Jokikokko, 2010), and it is closely aligned with similar concepts such as multicultural competence and cultural sensitivity, which highlight the necessity to encounter diversity actively, reflectively and respectfully (Jokikokko, 2010; Talib, 2005). Moreover, some pedagogies, such as culturally responsive teaching, are similar to intercultural competence in the approaches taken and values espoused (see Gay, 2018; Keskitalo, 2020; Villegas and Lucas, 2002). Bringing intercultural competence into conversation with multiculturalism and cultural sensitivity holds the potential to culminate in more culturally responsive ways of teaching that might serve to keep Indigenous cultures alive (see Moore et al., 2021). Early childhood teachers’ intercultural competence is significant when working in line with the premises of culturally responsible teaching at the cultural interfaces of dominant Euro-western educational systems and Sámi onto-epistemologies. It is important to note that this article approaches intercultural competence from a broad perspective to emphasise its processual qualities, rather than seeking to narrowly define it as a discrete set of specific professional skills (see Jokikokko, 2010).

We argue that intercultural competence refers to the specific expertise that is needed to work at cultural interfaces (see Jokikokko, 2010, 2021). For example, Jokikokko (2021) defines this expertise as comprising four overlapping dimensions: knowledge and awareness, skills, attitudes and action. Intercultural competence can therefore be understood as a holistic way of thinking and acting that pursues social justice and equitable interactions that respect diversity in intercultural encounters (Jokikokko, 2010, 2021). Moreover, it can be understood as ethical practice that serves to guide teachers’ actions in everyday relations at cultural interfaces (see Jokikokko and Järvelä, 2013). Supporting the development of teachers’ intercultural competence offers a practical approach to pursuing greater educational equality in ECE contexts (Jokikokko, 2010). In addition to pedagogical expertise, teachers are required to heighten their self-awareness and pose difficult questions related to power in their attempts to address educational inequalities as they surface in ECE contexts (Jokikokko, 2010; see Nieto, 2018). Further, through enhanced intercultural competence, teachers develop heightened capacities to affect the intercultural learning process of children (Jokikokko, 2010; Jokikokko and Järvelä, 2013) in their settings.

Inspired by this concept, we explore dimensions of teachers’ intercultural competence connected with Sámi onto-epistemologies to gesture towards a reimagined Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism as it surfaces at cultural interfaces. The remainder of the article maps out Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism through the four dimensions of intercultural competence: pedagogical knowledge and awareness; pedagogical skills; attitudes, values and individual backgrounds; and teachers’ active role in change. Although these four dimensions are mapped out in sequence, it is important to recognise the interconnection, overlap and intertwinement between them.

Teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and awareness

The first dimension refers to teachers’ knowledge and awareness of human, Indigenous and children's rights as fundamental premises of Sámi early childhood teachers’ professionalism (e.g. see Balto and Kuhmunen, 2014; Jokikokko, 2021; United Nations, 1948, 1989, 2007). Sámi early childhood teachers’ knowledge and awareness of rights-based education (as it corresponds to people and cultural traditions) is crucial to successfully supporting the fulfilment of Indigenous rights at the level of ECE organisation and everyday ECE practices. From a broader perspective, knowledge and awareness of holistic pedagogical thinking and related practices is necessary when working at cultural interfaces to better understand questions related to cultural diversity (see Jokikokko, 2021). This refers, for example, to awareness of cultural diversity as well as differences and similarities, and how they affect values, learning and interaction with members of ECE communities (see Keskitalo, 2020). The fundamental premise that all cultures and diversities should be respected cuts across all pedagogical practices (Keskitalo, 2020). This requires teachers to exercise heightened self-awareness and a willingness to critically explore their beliefs and practices (Hedges and Lee, 2010). Skills related to teacher self-reflection and criticality, as well as resilience to uncertainty and complexity, are likewise essential dimensions of Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism (see Jokikokko, 2021). In addition, referring to the Sámi context, Keskitalo (2020) states that the local culture and children's backgrounds and experiences should provide the pedagogical foundations for culturally responsive education. Keskitalo (2020: 29) continues that, in addition to localised place-based pedagogies, attention should be ‘paid to gender, individuals, groups, families, languages and ethnic backgrounds’. In the context of Sámi early childhood teachers’ professionalism, pedagogical knowledge and awareness insists on the ability to recognise and pay attention to structures that uphold inequalities within ECE (see Qi and Sterling Henward, 2025) – for example, teachers are required to be courageous enough to raise the topic of indigeneity and to critique existing structures that allow inequality between majority and minority cultures in ECE (e.g. see Gay, 2018; Smith, 2003).

Supporting children's identities is essential to Sámi ECE (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2022; Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2017), and a crucial part of teachers’ professionalism is understanding the multidimensional, complex and evolving nature of identities (e.g. see Kess and Puroila, 2021; Räsänen et al., 2018; Vandenbroeck, 2017). In Sámi ECE, affirming Indigenous identity plays a particularly central role, as children and families also live at cultural interfaces in their everyday lives, where colonial structures and systems persistently threaten to marginalise them. Consequently, the teacher's role is both significant in strengthening Sámi children's identities (Keskitalo, 2020) and crucial in supporting parents who are uncertain about raising children at cultural interfaces (Laiti, 2018; see also Keskitalo, 2020).

Teachers’ pedagogical skills

The pedagogical skills that teachers need when implementing Sámi pedagogy in ECE directly relate to creativity, emotion and empathy (see Jokikokko, 2021). Sámi early childhood teachers work within cultural interfaces in their everyday lives, which demands skills in ovttastallan – that is, appreciating and celebrating that everything is always in relation and that ECE is an active practice of ethical relationality-building (Kuokkanen and Balto, 2024) – as well as problem-solving and conflict resolution (see Jokikokko, 2021). Relationality, in Sámi culture, is tightly interrelated to ráđđedallan – that is, processes of deliberating or negotiating with others (Balto and Kuhmunen, 2014). These core Indigenous onto-epistemologies hold the potential to radically shape both pedagogical practice and teacher professionalism. As Yip and Chakma (2024) stress, it is important to reach beyond the transmission of cultural content towards more creative ways in which Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices can be communicated through ECE pedagogy. Traditional ways of mediating knowledge, such as storytelling (Aikio, 2010), organising learning according to the principle of searvelatnja – that is, bringing generations together for knowledge to be shared by elders through collaborative cultural pedagogical approaches (Balto and Kuhmunen, 2014; Laiti, 2024; Sara, 2003) – or making use of localised land-based learning (Becher et al., 2019; Jannok Nutti, 2018), are central to Indigenous relational ways of being and learning.

These embodied cultural enactments of Sámi onto-epistemologies make visible holistic thinking and demonstrate the significance of relational practices to ECE. They also underscore the significance of relation to place and the idea of continuous adaptation to the land and surrounding life. Underpinning these pedagogical approaches is the Sámi conceptualisation of time as cyclical. This stands in direct contrast to the linear progress narrative of time that infuses Euro-western notions of what time is and how it works (to regulate and contain in the name of efficiency). Sámi teachers have at their disposal ways to radically alter sedimented ways of organising time (and the pace and rate at which learning takes shape) in ECE. Working with cyclical rhythms of nature that correspond to yearly cycles of, for example, reindeer herding or fishing, and the eight discrete seasons that are informed by these traditional activities (Keskitalo, 2010), offers teachers alternative ways to pedagogically organise the foundations of ECE in a way that directly aligns with Indigenous ways of being and knowing.

Furthermore, although Sámi early childhood teachers must negotiate at cultural interfaces, it is important that their pedagogical skills stem from their own cultural knowledge and experiences. When teaching in a culturally responsive way in Sámi ECE, this means, for example, using cultural knowledge and prior experiences of working with children from culturally diverse backgrounds as resources (Gay, 2013). At the heart of culturally responsive teaching is affirming the strengths and capabilities of culturally diverse children and communities (Gay, 2013). For teachers working in Sámi ECE who are grappling with the tensions, contradictions and power dynamics entrenched within the colonial structures that shape cultural interfaces, this demands pedagogical ingenuity and sensitivity to difference in their daily work (see Keskitalo, 2025; Qi and Sterling Henward, 2025).

Teachers’ attitudes, values and individual backgrounds

When working at cultural interfaces, early childhood teachers’ attitudes, values and understanding of cultural diversity influence institutional practices, operational culture and how diversity is considered in everyday life with children in ECE (Gay, 2013; Paavola and Pesonen, 2021). Moreover, teachers’ reflection on their individual backgrounds, values and attitudes is a key dimension of their professionalism (Edwards and Edwards, 2017; Jokikokko and Järvelä, 2013; Lopes et al., 2023). In their pedagogical work, early childhood teachers utilise not only what they learned during their studies but also what they have learned from their individual life histories and cultural backgrounds (Balto, 2008; Edwards and Edwards, 2017; Gaup, 2008; Kess and Puroila, 2021). According to Laiti (2025), transferring teachers’ own cultural thinking and ways of doing, acting and communicating directly into ECE contexts is central to enriching Sámi ECE. Yet this is challenging when working at cultural interfaces, which involves wrestling with the colonial apparatuses that persist in devaluing and marginalising Sámi onto-epistemologies, as well as debating the validity in transferring one's own cultural knowledge into the ECE context. These are ongoing tensions that Sámi early childhood teachers are faced with navigating at the level of everyday implementation. Smith (2005) argues that colonialisation has deeply influenced Indigenous people and their minds, and therefore it is difficult to notice where, how and when colonialisation resurfaces through everyday discourses and encounters to silence alternative ways in which to live, to be and to teach. Actively paying attention to ‘the colonialised mind’ and refusing ‘normal’ or ‘typical’ (i.e. colonial, neo-liberal, Euro-western, standardised) thinking has been identified as providing vital opportunities for relearning educational dynamics (see Balto and Kuhmunen, 2014; Goodwin and Genor, 2007; Lenz Taguchi, 2006; Smith, 2021).

Teachers’ active role in change

Smith (2005) writes that teachers are change agents who need radical pedagogy to implement reform. Referring to Kaupapa Māori theory, Smith (2005: 30) describes change as ‘an educational resistance strategy’ leading to transformation and contends that indigenisation includes elements of conscientisation – awareness-raising, resistance and transformative action. Fasoli and Farmer (2015) argue that change stems from teachers’ attitudes and a willingness to shift mindsets. Being activ(ist) in initiating change at cultural interfaces highlights that knowledge, awareness, attitudes, values and skills are not enough to bring about change; transformative action is also needed to enable socially just encounters, practices and structures (see Jokikokko, 2021). Actions are intertwined with both knowledge and critical reflection, and should be built on an ethically sustainable foundation (Jokikokko, 2021; see also Freire, 2014; Webb, 2025). Furthermore, teachers should be aware of the significance of education and their active role in promoting equality, social justice and change in local communities and the wider society (Jokikokko and Järvelä, 2013). More broadly, building a more just and equal society happens together with other members of local communities (Gay, 2018; Webb, 2025; see also Freire, 2014). As Keskitalo (2020) remarks, teachers often act as defenders of Sámi education and children's rights in educational communities where minority and majority cultures collide.

Finding ways forward

This article has aimed to increase knowledge of teacher professionalism in Sámi ECE contexts and to deepen understanding of how Sámi onto-epistemologies might affect and contribute to (re)imagining and generating teacher professionalism at cultural interfaces. Our exploration of a Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism that foregrounds Sámi onto-epistemologies identified the significance of navigating the tensions that are encountered within cultural interfaces.

For Sámi early childhood teachers, working at cultural interfaces involves actively and consciously transferring Indigenous onto-epistemologies into practices of organising education, working intergenerationally with the community, and privileging other ways to communicate with one another. It also insists on being active in initiating change while recognising that this requires the transformative action and practice of the whole educational system. For education and for individual teachers, such work requires teachers to recognise that tools are needed to enable Sámi people and Sámi children to live in culturally diverse realities in ways that refuse the loss of Indigenous knowledge systems. Processes of transformation are needed to shift the power balance between cultures and to succeed in further maintaining and developing Sámi education, society, language and cultures.

Transformation is central to validating Sámi cultural identity and making it visible. This necessitates that Sámi onto-epistemologies are made, and taken as, the basis for decision-making. Smith (2003) calls this way of working ‘proactive activity’ and claims that working in a proactive way must be learned, as it neither exists nor is required in the majoritarian culture of education systems and settings. Awareness-raising is central to reimagining teacher professionalism in the Sámi context (Laiti, 2025). This demands that teacher education begins with the needs of Sámi children and Sámi society, and develops students’ ability for critical reflection (see also Jokikokko and Järvelä, 2013).

In connection with conscientisation, Smith (2003: 2) concludes that ‘transformation has to be won on at least two broad fronts; a confrontation with the colonizer and a confrontation with “ourselves”’. In a similar vein, Freire (2014) expressed that the oppressed must free themselves, as this cannot be done by the oppressors. According to Kuokkanen (2009), working at cultural interfaces demands continuous resistance to colonialism, which is a special characteristic of Indigenous education. This highlights the need to recognise the influence of colonial history on teacher professionalism, and also requires resistance to colonial ways of doing, being and thinking. The form of Sámi early childhood professionalism that has been explored through this article is implemented at cultural interfaces. As such, resistance to colonialism and the elevation of indigeneity insists that teachers refuse to consistently work in alignment with the majoritarian framework – that is, that which is viewed as ‘usual’ or ‘normal’. Instead, pedagogy should be informed by cultural preferences and responses to teachers’ own critical circumstances. Teachers need knowledge of how to promote the transformation of undesirable circumstances (see Lopes et al., 2023).

As stated earlier, transferring Indigenous knowledge into formal education is central to Sámi ECE. When working at cultural interfaces, it is necessary to engage in dialogue to create a connection and promote mutual respect and deeper understanding between different parties (Keskitalo, 2025). Education comes to life in relationships and encounters in educational settings; it is imbued with a dialogical character, as teachers not only teach but also constantly learn with and from children and community members (Freire, 2014). Dialogue, as a relationship with mutual trust, is based on three principles: love, faith and humility (Freire, 2014). Similar principles are found in Sámi educational thinking, such as relationality (Kuokkanen and Balto, 2024), trust and positive expectations for curiosity and flourishing (Balto, 2008), and love (Balto, 2023). Dialogue foregrounds a profound love for the world and for people, with faith in people and humankind in a climate of hope (Freire, 2014).

Our final reflections are intertwined with a perspective of hope (Freire, 2014; Qi and Sterling Henward, 2025). As Qi and Sterling Henward (2025) note, hope connects critical understandings of present conditions and active dialogical moves towards change. In Sámi early childhood teacher professionalism, it is crucial to manifest hope in order to support culturally sustainable ways of working at cultural interfaces. Hope is also reflected in the statement that ‘every moment is a possibility to work from the Sámi approach’ (Laiti, 2025: 67).

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Marikaisa Laiti

Riikka Kess

Jaana Juutinen

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author biographies

Marikaisa Laiti, PhD, MEd, BEd, is an Associate Professor in Sámi early childhood education (ECE) pedagogy at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences, Norway, where she leads the BA programme in Sámi early childhood teacher education. She earned her doctorate in educational sciences in 2018, with a dissertation examining the implementation of Sámi early childhood education in Finland. Prior to her academic career, she worked for 12 years in diverse ECE contexts, including leadership roles in Northern Sámi language settings. Her research focuses on Sámi ECE teacher education, pedagogical practices, and everyday life in Sámi early childhood settings, as well as Indigenous research ethics. Her work is grounded in an eco-cultural theoretical approach. In addition, she leads the UArctic Thematic Network on Verdde Indigenous Education, which facilitates collaborative projects, research, and international seminars across all levels of Indigenous education.

Riikka Kess, PhD, works as a university teacher in early childhood education teacher program in University of Oulu. Her research interests focus on cultural diversity and multilingualism in early childhood educational communities, as well as early childhood teacher's work in northern and Arctic contexts. She is especially interested in narrative research and peer methods.

Jaana Juutinen, PhD, University lecturer research interests and expertise include narrative and participatory methodologies on studying educator's work in the diverse contexts and ethnographic and visual approaches in understanding children's lives in educational settings.

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