The first part of the seminar includes two presentations by visiting international experts. First, Professors Karen Trimmer from University of Southern Queensland (Australia) and Debra Hoven from Athabasca University (Canada) give an expert lecture about Supervision of Indigenous postgraduate students. They have a long experience about various kind of supervision tasks at higher education. Secondly, Head of Department and Associate professor Benedikte Brincker, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen (Denmark), will talk about how different forms of motivation influences attraction and attrition of school teachers working under extreme conditions – Case: East Greenland.

The second part of the seminar includes the launch of the international book "Indigenous Postgraduate Education: Intercultural Perspectives", edited by Professor Karen Trimmer, University of Southern Queensland, Australia, Professor Debra Hoven, Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada and University Researcher Pigga Keskitalo, University of Lapland, Finland. The book explores how Indigenous people may be better supported towards more equitable participation to undertake higher degree research postgraduate studies in higher education institutions internationally.

In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; in Canada, First Nation, Métis and Inuit peoples; in Scandinavia and Kola Peninsula, Sámi and in New Zealand, Maori people; have been the “subjects” of formal and informal research since colonisation and assimilation. However, in many colonised or assimilated contexts Indigenous people have had limited opportunities to be the researchers or undertake postgraduate study by research. Increasing numbers of Indigenous postgraduate students and researchers is key to enabling leaders and communities, and in the development and understanding of and respect for Indigenous histories, cultures and language within curriculum and pedagogy and approaches to research. Importantly, postgraduate students and researchers can also be agents of power and have the capacity to not only subvert and resist but to positively advance within their own cultural context.

There is an important contribution to be made by giving voice to Indigenous postgraduate students so that they can share directly the stories of their experience, their inspirations and difficulties in undertaking postgraduate study. Bringing the topic and the voices of Indigenous students clearly into the public domain provides a catalyst for discussion of the issues and potential strategies to assist future Indigenous postgraduate students and can provide sustainable solution-focused and change-focused strategies to support Indigenous postgraduate students who will go on to become stronger Indigenous educational leaders, in turn supporting the next generation.

Open seminar and book launch at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi

Time and Place: Wednesday March 11., 10-12.00, room ss 22.

Programme

10-11.00 Supervision of Indigenous postgraduate students

Professor Karen Trimmer, University of Southern Queensland (Australia) and Debra Hoven, Athabasca University (Canada).

11.00-11.30 How different forms of motivation influences attraction and attrition of school teachers working under extreme conditions (the case is East Greenland)

Benedikte Brincker, Head of Department, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen

11.30-12.00 Book launch Indigenous postgraduate education - Intercultural perspectives (by IAP)

Editors: Karen Trimmer, Debra Hoven and Pigga Keskitalo

Coffee and snacks. You all are warmly welcome!

Contact:

Pigga Keskitalo, Researcher, Research project ADVOST
pigga.keskitalo(@)ulapland.fi
tel. +358 40 484 4153
webpage: www.ulapland.fi/uatn/advost

Janette Peltokorpi, Project coordinator, UArctic Thematic Network Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity
janette.peltokorpi(@)ulapland.fi
tel. +358 40 484 4485
webpage: www.ulapland.fi/uatn

Bios

Karen Trimmer

Professor Karen Trimmer is Postgraduate Program Coordinator–Education, with University of Southern Queensland, and previously held roles as Assistant Dean Staffing and A/Head of School. Her scholarship and research focus is leadership for community capacity building, through research that impacts on education and social justice policy and governance through professional development and empowerment of leaders in education organisations and communities. She is USQ’s representative for the Australian Council of Deans of Education, More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers Initiative and received a MATSITI grant to conduct research in this area. Her nationally recognised expertise in educational evaluation was sought to evaluate the OLT project, Skilling Up; Improving educational opportunities for AEWs through technology-based pedagogy. She is also currently working with DETE providing professional development for Master teachers to undertake Action research within QLD schools, which assists capacity building through the purposeful collection and use of data for evidence-based decision making.

Debra Hoven

I research and teach in the areas of appropriate technologies in education, open, flexible and blended learning and pedagogy, and appropriate technologies for intercultural education and learning in the MEd and EdD programs in the CDE. Previously I have taught in LOTE/TESOL Education at the Queensland University of Technology, and the Applied Linguistics program at Queensland University in Australia where I was involved in teaching, research and consultancy in the areas of language teacher education, innovative and flexible pedagogies, and the integration of technology in language teaching and learning. Other places I have taught include Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. My major current areas of research interest are in digital storytelling to support success in Indigenous education, e-portfolios as a tool to develop critical reflection, Indigenous research methodologies, and Ecological Constructivism as a learning theory that fits with contemporary understandings of how people learn, particularly in online, blended and mobile environments.

Benedikte Brincker

Benedikte Brincker is Head of Department and Associate Professor at Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen. Previously, she held a position as Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School. She holds a Ph.D. in Social and Political Science from the London School of Economics. Benedikte Brincker’s research spans two main areas: Nationalism studies and public administration. Her work focuses on the emergence and development of nation states and national welfare states in Europe. In this context, she focuses especially on two elements: 1) the development of mass standardized compulsory educational systems across European nation states and 2) the construction of ‘national art’ in Europe. In recent years, Brincker has expanded this research agenda into the Arctic and has carried out field work into primary and lower secondary state schools (folkeskoler) in Greenland. This research engages with interactions between nation-building and education in Greenland and taps into public administration by engaging with public governance and administration.