Education, Equity and Inclusion: Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable North

This conference discusses teaching and learning through various perspectives and experiences with the aim of creating a more sustainable North. We aim to explore in depth the provision of education across the North, focusing on challenges and innovations in meeting the needs of diverse learners in remote and rapidly changing contexts.

The conference will be held on 19 November 2020 at 16-19 (UTC +0). Please check your local time here.

The conference is open for all to participate, and there is no registration fee. The conference will be held in Zoom. The conference’s keynote speech by Kirk Anderson and panel discussion will be recorded and published for open access on the Resource Center.

You are warmly welcome to join us!

The online conference is organised by UArctic Thematic Network Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity. The conference is bringing together teacher educators, researchers and people who are interested in developing teacher education in Northern areas. 

The conference is a joint activity of three projects: Arctic Pedagogy in Teacher Education (ApedEDU), Transformative Teacher Education for the Sustainable North (TTE), and Enhancing Equity and Inclusion in Education in Circumpolar North (EICN). Read more about the projects in their websites: ApedEDU, TTE, EICN.

Note: The schedule is in UTC +0 time. Please check your local time.

Keynote: Learning from and Leading change in indigenous and northern education - transition risks

Professor Kirk Anderson, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Kirk started his career as a teacher and school administrator in Inuit and rural schools of his home province. For the last 20 years, he has been working as a faculty member and academic leader in universities across Canada. Added to this are significant engagements in international development in post conflict and ethically diverse regions of the world. Not surprisingly, these aspects of his career are reflected in his research profile.

Most recently, he completed his second term as Dean of Education where he lead the development of significant initiatives for Indigenous and Northern Education. He is also the former President of the Canadian Deans Association. Since 2019, upon returning to the more normal faculty role, a period of reflection is predictable. Everyone has experienced transitions, and many (as in Kirk’s case) have led them. Of note then is that the leadership and change literature suggests a tendency of organizations to revert to old norms once a change agent leaves. Informed by this while reflecting on his background, in this keynote presentation, Kirk will outline his personal and professional journey as an Indigenous person and leadership scholar engaged in the process of reframing Indigenous research and programs. He will also share his views of what comes next.

Parallel sessions

Theme 1: Supporting Teachers for Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom including consideration of language and identity issues

Theme 1 explores how teachers might be supported for diversity and inclusion in their classroom. There are common challenges across school systems in the north including the preparation, recruitment, ongoing support and retention of teachers who are effective in the rich ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity of classrooms in these communities. High teacher turnover is a perennial problem in the north, especially in rural areas and is strongly correlated with lower student achievement.

Session chair: Mhairi Beaton, Leeds Beckett University

The session includes one-slide presentations by following researchers and discussion.

Kalpana Vijayavarathan: Supporting teachers to tackle diversity and facilitate inclusion in the classroom from the perspectives of Iceland and The Faroe Islands (with a recognition to co-author Edda Óskarsdóttir)
Mhairi C. Beaton, Hanna Helander and Pigga Keskitalo: Indigenous and Minority Languages: A Comparative Study focusing on the Sami and Scottish Gaelic
Olga Kagan: Personal and ethnic identity in representatives of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the Russian Far North – the Saami and the Nenets (with a recognition to co-authors Natalia Flostkaya, Svetlana Bulanova, Maria Ponomareva, Nikolay Flotskiy)
Anne Burke and Benjamin Boison: Collaborative Pedagogies Seeking and Finding Truth within Indigenous Children’s Literature (with a recognition to co-author Deborah Toope)
Douglas Cost: The tundra doesn’t grow trees or teachers: Solving the teacher supply crisis in Rural Alaska (with a recognition to co-author Diane Hirshberg)
Kalpana Vijayavarathan: Through education to equity in identity and inclusion for immigrant children: document analysis of the status quo in The Faroe Islands
Ylva Jannok Nutti: Sámi Teacher Education or Teacher Education for Sámi students? Pedagogical pathways towards definition and implementation of Indigenous Education for equality and justice in the Arctic region

Theme 2: Engendering community solutions to structural and geographical challenges in education in the circumpolar north.

Theme 2 addresses engendering solutions to structural and geographical challenges in education in the circumpolar North. Many northern communities are distinctive in their remoteness and rurality, and northern urban areas also face particular issues related to their geographical isolation. There are many ways to think about equity, access and success in education in the north. One of these is to consider how we provide opportunities to people who face challenges due to geography and population density. How do we rethink school-community relations? How do we more intentionally engage local and Indigenous community members in educational processes? How do we support multiple sustainable pathways through education for all students regardless of the size and remoteness of their community?

Session chair: Gregor Maxwell, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

The session includes one-slide presentations by following researchers and discussion.

Lars Demant-Poort and Louise Pindstrup Andersen: A student perspective on public schooling in Greenland
Anne-Mette Bjøru: Creative didactics in a small school in Northern Norway
Mitdlarak Lennert: The role of evaluative thinking in generating, evaluating and scaling innovations in learning: A case study of the Greenland education system
Tuija Turunen: Does it Matter Where You Live? Young people’s experiences of educational transitions from basic education to further education in Finnish Lapland (with a recognition to co-authors Suvi Lakkala, Merja Laitinen, Katja Norvapalo and Kaisa Thessler)
Edda Óskarsdóttir and Anna Katarzyna Wozniczka: Development of innovative distance teaching in Iceland: A collaborative action research
Lars Demant-Poort: Teaching science in Greenland’s far north - opportunities and challenges in iPad integrated science teaching

Registration to the online workshop is now open, until 16 November 2020. Please register to the workshop by clicking the link below.

 Registration has closed.

The workshop will be organised online through Zoom. Participating the workshop is free of charge, and the workshop is open for all to participate.

Registration in advance is mandatory, and the link to the workshop will be shared only with those who are registered. The link will be shared via email after the registration closes.