Ripsteg mot spetskunskap i samisk matematik : lärares perspektiv på transformeringsaktiviteter i samisk förskola och sameskola

Sammanfattning: The aim of the present thesis is to describe, analyse and try to understand transformation of education in mathematics from a teacher perspective so that a Sámi perspective becomes the point of departure of the education. The thesis work was conducted as an action research project with focus on teachers' perspective on transformation and implementation of transformation activities in mathematics. Theoretical points of departure were taken from Smith's theory of indigenous perspectives, Banks' theory for integration of multicultural and intercultural content in the teaching, and Bernstein's recontextualisation theory. The study is located among the research areas of cultural context, education and mathematics didactics. The background of the thesis is Jannok Nutti's licentiate thesis, where Sámi traditional knowledge was described and analysed on the basis of the ethnomathematician Bishop's mathematical activities. The study also draws on Lipka's previous research in Alaska, where the cooperation among elderly bearers of culture, teachers, mathematicians and researchers resulted in culture-based maths lessons. The study was conducted in collaboration with teachers at Sámi schools within an action research project. The method for the action research was based on Nielsen's and Aagard Nielsen's critical utopian action research model. The study was divided into three parts, where the first part was based on talks with different groups of teachers about what the education in mathematics looks like today and what challenges the teachers experience concerning the Sámi perspective on education in mathematics. Part two focused on reflection talks with the teachers based on their performed transformation activities in mathematics from a Sámi perspective. In part three concluding talks were conducted with the teachers about their experienced challenges when performing transformation activities. The talks were analysed by means of a hermeneutic method. The result from the study showed that the teachers' experiences of challenges were initially chiefly focused on external obstacles, e.g. lack of teaching materials, restricting policy documents and national tests. The activities were implemented through thematic work with elements of mathematics, through mathematical assignments where the content of the arithmetic problems dealt with Sámi cultural elements or through activities where the Sámi culture served as the basis for attempts to transform the learning of mathematics. The implementation implied a recontextualisation of Sámi culture for education in mathematics that made visible a distance between Sámi traditional knowledge and educational knowledge. Transformation activities therefore require reflection concerning the goal of recontextualisation. After performing the activities the teachers on the whole expressed the same challenges as before, but on the other hand their stories indicated an altered attitude to these challenges. External obstacles were described as internal to a higher degree. The teachers expressed an attitude and acted where they became agents of change for transformation. In the process was decolonisation made visible through their active efforts to try to focus on the Sámi traditional knowledge together with mathematics in preschool and school.