ノルウェーの高等教育機関と先住民族教育

─サーミ大学を事例として─

抄録

 Sámi are an indigenous people who originally inhabited Sápmi, the traditional Sámi land that cross-borders Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Today, it is estimated that approximately 40,000–60,000 Sámi live in Norway (roughly 1% of the total Norwegian population); 20,000 live in Sweden; 7,500 in Finland; and 2,000 in Russia (Sollbakk & Varsi, 2014). During the post-war period, Norway’s welfare state steadily expanded, and the 1950s and 60s witnessed economic prosperity and national development. However, as a tradeoff for modernisation, “Sáminess” was considered unfavourable, and the Sámi people were forced to assimilate into Norwegian society. Against the backdrop of this Norwegianization policy, Sámi peoples—particularly the young, educated Sámi—started to engage in political activities. Among these activities, the damming of the Alta-Kautokeino River in the 1970s was a turning point in the Sámi rights movement.
 It is noteworthy that the Sámi restored their inherent rights by the end of 1980s and have since been enjoying a relatively high level of self-determination in areas such as education, culture, language and traditional livelihood. In 1988 the Norwegian government amended its constitution, and in October of 1989 it opened the Sámi Parliament of Norway. The year 1989 also marked the establishment of Sámi University College (or Sámi allaskuvla in Sámi) in Kautokeino. It is Europe’s first and only indigenous higher-education institution. The SUC has three departments: linguistics, social science, and Duodji and teacher education. It offers programmes at the bachelor, masters, and doctoral levels, and their unique programmes attract not only Sámi students from Sápmi, but also non-Sámi people from all around the world. However, the total pool of applicants is small, and the university struggles to tackle particular challenges that are unique to them as an indigenous institution.
 The purpose of this research paper is twofold: (1) to review current Sámi research and education in Norway’s higher-education sector, and (2) to report characteristics and challenges of the educational programmes provided at Sámi University College (SUC) as a case study. In the first section, this reseach examines indigenous education programmes and higher education in Norway by referring to Norwegian government reports, statistics, and newspaper articles. The next section focuses on current issues at SUC, including programmes, student statistics, and other challenges. This research paper should be considered a work-in-progress report. However, considering the limited number of articles on Norway’s higher educaiton available in Japan, it will offer new insights on the progressive, rights-oriented approach of Sámi education. In that sense, the significance of this research lies in the light it sheds on the relatively unknown areas of indigenous education and higher education institutions in Norway.