Engaging with indigenous perspectives in mainstream Norwegian teacher education: Collaborative autoethnography as a path toward decolonial indigenization

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article reports on a collective learning project with the aim of integrating indigenous perspectives in a teacher education program in Norway. The Norwegian educational system is legally obliged to emphasize Sámi perspectives, a strategy that has been described as indigenization. However, inclusion of Sámi perspectives is often done without challenging colonial power-relations. Our project was based on a reading circle engaging with texts by indigenous authors, performing a collaborative autoethnography. The purpose of collaborative autoethnography is not the self-narrative, but a relational process of reflexively critiquing the situatedness of the self. Our collaborative autoethnographic work aimed at disidentifying with ongoing coloniality in academia. Through the article, we share our learnings on how performing autoethnographic work can be a path toward moving ourselves to action for decolonization. We argue that if teacher education is to move toward an indigenization that is decolonial, “unlearning” of epistemological monocultures is vital.