Official-Language Minority and Aboriginal First-Language Education: Implications of Norway’s Sámi Language Act for Canada

Norway has given official-language status to the languages of its aboriginal peoples, the Sámi, yet Canada has accorded that status only to English and French, the languages of the colonizers. In Norway, the 1992 legislation giving major language and cultural rights to the Sámi has had a major impac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Corson, David
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Canadian Society for the Study of Education / Société canadienne pour l'étude de l'éducation 1996
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/2725
Description
Summary:Norway has given official-language status to the languages of its aboriginal peoples, the Sámi, yet Canada has accorded that status only to English and French, the languages of the colonizers. In Norway, the 1992 legislation giving major language and cultural rights to the Sámi has had a major impact on Sámi education. This Norwegian experience has significant implications for official-language minority and aboriginal first-language education in Canada, shedding light on such important topics as minority teacher educa- tion, minority first-language pedagogy, curriculum texts, community attitudes to minority languages, language support services, school administration, devolution of control, cultural incorporation, and the maintenance of cultural identities. As a result, in this article I question the appropriateness of official policies and language practices in Canada. La Norvège a accordé le statut de langue officielle aux langues de ses peuples autochtones, les Sámis. Cependant, le Canada n’a accordé ce statut qu’à l’anglais et au français, langues de ses colonisateurs. En Norvège, la législation de 1992, accordant des droits linguistiques et culturels majeurs aux Sámis, a eu un impact considérable sur l’éducation de ceux-ci. Cette expérience norvégienne qui comporte des implications significatives pour l’éducation relative à la langue officielle des minorités et à la langue maternelle des autochtones au Canada, jette un éclairage sur des sujets importants pour les minorités tels: la formation des maîtres, la pédagogie relative à leur langue maternelle, les attitudes de la communauté à l’égard des langues des minorités, les services de soutien linguistiques, l’administration scolaire, la dévolution du contrôle, l’incorporation culturelle et le maintien des identités culturelles. Par conséquent, je remets en question dans cet article le bien-fondé des politiques officielles et des pratiques linguistiques au Canada.