“Oi! Dét skal jeg gjøre”: Choosing Sámi as second language in upper secondary school

Abstract

Through official language policy, schools in Norway have been given an important role in the process of language revitalization of Sami, and students have the option of having Sámi as first language or as second language. The aim of this presentation is to discuss which role the school subject Sámi as second language plays in this process. This school subject was first introduced in 1987, so it is a recent option for students in primary and secondary school. Politically it is framed as part of language revitalization aiming for increasing the numbers of Sámi language users, and there is a special attention on transitions from Sami as second language to Sámi as first language in primary or lower secondary school. However, we know little about the students’ perspectives, and we know especially little about students beginning with Sámi as second language in upper secondary school. In this presentation I zoom in on this latter category of Sámi language students and ask which social and historical discourses circulate in students’ choices to start studying Sami as second language at this stage of their educational trajectory. The data is from an ongoing discourse ethnographic project within the framework of nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), and I will analyse interview data from six students. The analysis will show that rather than taking responsibility of increasing the numbers of Sámi language users, the students’ investment in Sámi language learning is linked to relations with family, identity and curiosity. Choosing Sámi as second language is thus better understood considering Leonard’s (2017) concept of language reclamation.