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In this article, we review teaching practice supervision methods using Microsoft Teams as a digital, dialogic, and reflective tool in the supervision of the pre-service teachers' teaching practicum. We applied qualitative thematic analysis to data from conversations and supervision discussions between 40 pre-service teachers and their supervisor on the Microsoft Teams chat channel to investigate pre-service teachers' experiences of teaching-practice supervision through digital platforms. The dialogical, digital, deep (DDD) pedagogical framework guided the analysis of the data. We found Microsoft Teams enhanced pre-service teachers' written dialogue, increased peer support, and enabled and deepened collective group dialogue, leading to increased understanding of teaching and learning through analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, producing, and creating knowledge.

This article presents a research-based study of the role of ePortfolios in the development of vocational students' skills. The authors discuss the process of finding a hybrid learning solution that can address the issues faced by vocational teachers and their students. The authors report on a case study using educational design research (EDR) at the Sámi Education Institute in northern Finland. Data were gathered from students in reindeer herding entrepreneurship and nature guide study programs using interviews, focus group discussions, and the feedback collected from workshops. Based on the findings of the initial workshops, ePortfolios were chosen as a tool for students to develop their vocational proficiency and showcase their academic activities. According to the feedback, ePortfolios potentially promote meaningful vocational study, particularly in the context of changing conditions when the student is far away from campus. The successful use of ePortfolios requires cooperation between students and teachers and commitment to support changes in the learning culture.

Based on the premise that outdoor-oriented learning relies on students' perceptions of nature, this study contributes to the development of outdoor-based education in the Arctic and northern context. The study analyses conceptions and lifetime experiences of nature as reported by students (N = 46) in Sustainability and Outdoor Education-Oriented Teacher Education in Finland. A web-based questionnaire was used to gather data for content analysis. The results revealed variations in the students' perceptions, although all were very aware of their connection to nature in the Arctic. The findings confirm the need for teachers to be aware that students' perceptions and lived experiences of nature affect their ability to work with nature-related issues. As those perceptions vary according to background, personal connections and existing knowledge, student-centred education for teachers should take account of these factors.

Conducted in northern Finland, this study examines Sámi language teachers' professional identities through their narratives of language acquisition. We focus on how teachers' professional identities are shaped by their language acquisition process. The results are based on the narratives of nine North, Inari and Skolt Sámi language teachers. Two aspects of teachers' narratives were significantly linked to their identities as Sámi language teachers: (1) their backgrounds (indigenous/non-indigenous) and (2) their language acquisition experiences (acquired Sámi language in childhood/adulthood). Indigenous teachers appeared to express their professional identities strongly despite their challenging acquisition experiences and were inclined to work towards the future of Sámi languages. In addition, non-indigenous teachers were willing to further the development of Sámi languages although they are not indigenous, which perhaps contributes towards the future of Sámi languages. Teachers narrated complex thoughts about language acquisition and their professional identity and helped develop indigenous language education in their respective indigenous communities. We recommend that teachers' in pre-service and service education should prepare and support indigenous language teachers by sharing knowledge about multilingual education practices and coping skills, particularly to help the latter manage varied tasks and heterogeneous contexts. Thus, this research study shows that both teachers' language acquisition experiences and their current work situations shape their professional identity.

This article considers the Sámi understanding of time and place in pedagogical settings. The study is based on research material gathered at Sámi schools and from teaching conducted in the Sámi language. These data were combined to develop a theoretical review of teacher education from a metatheoretical perspective. The research challenges schools' pedagogical arrangements. Local contents of the study are an important part of the school syllabus, and this article suggests that they are closely tied to school educational arrangements. This study also suggests that, in Northern schools, the Sámi worldview and traditional knowledge should be closely connected to school practices. This means that the Sámi understanding of time and place should receive sufficient emphasis in school curricula. Schools could benefit from the open learning concept, such as modern curricula grounded in teaching that is phenomenon based. This could increase pupils' motivation and sense of connection to the local area. With mediating structures -- connected to multicultural educational contexts -- such educational systems could be developed.

This article discusses smallness from the point of view of the Sami, an indigenous people of the Arctic, and describes today's Sami education in Finland, the factors that have affected its formation and the challenges in strengthening it. The purpose of the article is to provide ideas to develop Sami education and encourage discovering methods that emanate from indigenous peoples' own cultural premises. This article is based on our previous studies and data that we further analyzed into theoretical tools. Here, we discuss what it would mean to the Sami to have a sovereign educational system. The challenges are viewed especially from the point of view of the Sami being a small assemblage that inhabits four countries. (Contains 1 table.)

Due to the history of assimilation, power relations, and their sociolinguistic situation, the Sámi languages are categorized as endangered. The position of the Sámi languages in Sámi education is reviewed, and language immersion as a teaching method and as a means of language maintenance is discussed. Sámi language learning is described through the theoretical model of a "Language Immersion Tepee," adapted from an idea in which the pupil advances to more and more skillful levels in language proficiency through affective, social, cognitive, and practical learning and in which the status of the language, the community context, and indigenous epistemology are taken into consideration. This model was created for use in situations in which the reality of Sámi teaching is diverse and complicated.

The purpose of this article is, first, to describe Sami children's education and its status in the Finnish education system and, secondly, to contemplate its development in Finland. The core of the article is intertwined with issues concerning the status, language, and culture of indigenous peoples. According to the article, the western school dominates instruction and teaching and is spirally connected to the assimilation, power relations, and socialisation process that the Sami have experienced. The practical framework for Sami education (based on the earlier findings of the authors) which would direct teaching arrangements and comprehensive pedagogy drawn from the own premises of the Sami people is reviewed. The Sami world-view and Sami values and culture should occupy a central position in teaching, but also in the curriculum. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article focuses on the features of Sami language instruction at the first school grades in Norway. The most important part is to describe what kind of challenges Sami language instruction at the first grades as an indigenous people's language and with the status of a minority language has. This situation introduces some differences and challenges that must be taken account at the planning level and in classroom working in practice. Sami language instruction is effected in a situation which is challenging both from the sociological and human rights perspectives. Pupil groups are more heterogeneous than ever before because of the assimilation process and power relations as well as the status of Sami language. Teachers must work in a situation which is quite different from the national-level language situation as a whole. Any examples cannot be found in research or in the national-level language situation as the situation of Sami language differs from that remarkably. (Contains 2 notes.)

This article dissects instruction in the Norwegian Sami School and its cultural sensitivity. The focus is on the classroom culture of Sami education: how Sami education is arranged in practice. The core of the research is intertwined with issues concerning the status, language, and culture of Indigenous people in education. The research was ethnographic and the research data consists of questionnaires (N = 108), teachers' (N = 15) interviews, and the researcher's field diaries. The research showed that the Sami culture and school culture do not meet: the western school culture dominates teaching at the Sami School and socialises the Sami School into mainstream society. The Sami people's conception of time, place, and information should be emphasised in the teaching arrangements.

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This article presents the findings of an international comparative multiple-case study that examined the sudden change from classroom to remote online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study specifically explored the experiences of teachers in Northern Finland, England, and Norway, seeking to provide new information about the education situation and identify the focus areas to guide the education of future teachers. The data were collected in three different ways in three different contexts: via an online survey of in-service teachers in Lapland, Finland (N = 164), and through different semi-structured interviews with teachers in England (N = 20) and northern Norway (N = 30). The data analysis was conducted in two phases. The first phase focused on teachers’ experiences in teaching and learning and the second phase on teachers’ challenges. The results reflect teachers’ desire for additional education on online pedagogy, as well as the significance of teacher collaboration and knowledge sharing. The findings can be used to develop pre- and in-service teacher education, supporting the dynamic digitization of teacher education programs and policies. We recommend that strategies should be developed for how such programs can strengthen future teachers’ interaction, collaboration, and knowledge sharing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]