Indigenous language education faces systemic barriers in Nordic schools

<p>This chapter looks at studies done in the field of Sami literacy research between 2010 and 2022 and looks at some interesting new developments and community initiatives within Sami literacy studies that have yet not been fully investigated. The chapter reveals an emerging field of study and pedagogical and didactic development that enter the Indigenous literacy landscape, which is often loaded with linguistic input and literacy content in languages other than Sami. The complexity of the context is reflected, among other things, in the empirical studies that have investigated the writing processes of multilingual language learners in Sápmi. The learners often view, or experience, writing in the Indigenous heritage language as less fluent and more laborious than writing in the state majority languages, or even in English. Policy document analysis suggests that the steering bodies do not treat the locally spoken and learned heritage languages as equal to the majority languages, which creates an inherent literacy gap between the languages. Attitudes and language ideologies among the learners and teachers have the potential to create negative hierarchical views on languages, writing, and language learning. Development of research, practical training, and community initiatives, as well as implementation in teacher training, is needed to counteract views, ideologies and practices that may undermine the future of local literacies and that put the growth of future generations of Sami writers at risk.</p>