Enhancing Equity and Inclusion in Education in Circumpolar North (EICN), led by Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland
Project partners: University of Lapland, Copenhagen Business School, University of the Faroe Islands, Leeds Beckett University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Northern Arctic Federal University, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Iceland
The goal of the project is to strengthen collaboration under the auspices of the UArctic Thematic Network on Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity with member institutions from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark. In addition, the project aims to publish a book focusing on inclusive policies and practices in educational settings.
The UArctic Thematic Network on Teacher Education published a book “Including the North: a Comparative Study of the Policies on Inclusion and Equity in the Circumpolar North” in March 2019. The completion of the network desktop study book highlighted that the Thematic Network had a gap in their circumpolar coverage, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. At the UArctic Congress in 2018, contact was made with two colleagues working in teacher education in Nuuk, Greenland. These colleagues joined the network members for their meeting with the publisher with a view to publish the follow-up on Network book. The network views the inclusion of colleagues from the Faroe Islands and Greenland as a priority in the ongoing activities of the network to facilitate full participation of all voices through expansion of the network to include all.
Additionally, the first book was a desktop study permitting members of the network to write about priorities for educational development for inclusion and indigenous language teaching in their national and regional contexts. The project workshops will also provide an opportunity to now explore commonalities and differences between these separate policy contexts in more depth. The last time that a book was published focusing on transnational circumpolar educational studies was in 1996 and on that occasion Russia was not included in the book; therefore this forthcoming book will fill a gap in knowledge within the discipline in addition to a much-needed update in the field.
Children of the Arctic: local knowledge and sustainable development project, led by Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland
Project partners: North-Eastern Federal University, RAIPON, McGill University, University of Washington
This project will be implemented as part of the project “Children of the Arctic” of the Arctic Council's Sustainable Development Working Group. The project “Children of the Arctic: local knowledge and sustainable development” aims to promote the sustainable development of indigenous peoples, their social and economic development while maintaining the connection to their local knowledge and their traditional way of life. The project aims to assess the methods implemented in the field of well-being of children of indigenous peoples of the Arctic.
There is a need for the search of new approaches and the improvement of the situation in the field of children reaching their full potential while preserving local knowledge. In the result of the comparative analysis of Greenland, Russian and Canadian situations with children in the Arctic will make recommendations on the application of best practices in the upbringing of children, taking into account the preservation of their native language and culture. Indigenous peoples living in the traditional environment of remote and isolated areas face the complicated organization of modern administration of various services. Therefore, the implementation of the project will contribute to share communities’ best practices and aspirations regarding giving their children the best possible environment to grow and future, as well as the preservation of the culture and language.
During the start-up phase of the project, the partners will gather and analyse the information about children’s social conditions as well as practices and programs that are implemented in the field of children’s well-being in the Arctic. The information that will be collected during the project will serve as a basis for the creation of materials and the development of a way to share the best practices over the Arctic region. The project will also create a Thematic Network within UArctic which will include lectures by experts, including local indigenous experts, from Greenland, Russia and Canada.
Climate Change effects on Nature and Society in the Arctic, led by Aarhus University, Department of Environmental Science
Project partners: Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Technical University of Denmark, University of Greenland, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, University of Helsinki, Agricultural University of Iceland, Lund University, University of Oulu, University of Laval, University of Manitoba, Moscow State University, and Zuev Station Tomsk University
The goal of the project is to provide unique educational opportunities for students in the Circumpolar North. To enhance human capacity and expand crucial interdisciplinary knowledge in the North as well as knowledge about the North, they propose to develop and run a summer school on climate change effects on nature and society in the Arctic as a part of the Thematic Network on Arctic Boreal Hub. The Thematic Network consists of research, research infrastructure and education activities aimed at resolving sustainability questions in the circumpolar Arctic ‐ boreal regions.
The summer school will be aimed at graduate level and will in addition to the Arctic boreal region include the Arctic Cryosphere. Besides the Thematic Network, CENSArctic will have a strong connection to the Arctic Science Study Programme (ASSP) master program (https://gcrc.gl/education/assp/) and the new Nordic Master “Environmental Changes at Higher Latitudes” (EnCHiL). Furthermore, the course will be open to students from natural sciences as well as social sciences, thus we will use the approach of horizontal learning. This approach will benefit from the interdisciplinary knowledge of the students and make the students learn from each other, and thus explore the potentials of working together across scientific fields. This approach has been used in a previous course with great success.
The summer school will be a combination of e‐learning and field course enabling students to apply only for an e‐learning module or both. The field courses will this time take place in Iceland and in Greenland and involve excursions to ecosystem sites, cultural landscapes and involving interactions with the local communities to learn about traditional knowledge and their view on climate change.