Higher Education for Climate Change Mitigation: Sámi and Indigenous Knowledge Integration in Norwegian University Curricula

Abstract

This thesis investigates Norwegian higher education policy and practice in climate change mitigation efforts. Through document reviews and interviews with teaching and administrative staff at the University of Tromsø, the Arctic University of Norway (UiT), Nord University (UiN), and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the thesis explores the level of Sámi and Indigenous knowledge integration in Norwegian university strategies and their climate education curricula. The study reveals a disconnect between Sámi Indigenous rights legislation and Higher Educational policy, leading to an absence of Sámi Indigenous knowledge in Norwegian higher education curricula, and in the broader climate education discourse. I argue that climate discourse is predominantly shaped by Western epistemologies, Eurocentric in nature, and informed by colonial ideologies. Indigenous knowledge does not pertain to Western notions of science and is therefore often overlooked as a viable knowledge system. As a result, it rarely features within climate policy or climate action.

The findings of this study highlight the importance of decolonisation efforts in making space for a new knowledge economy grounded in diverse epistemologies, including Sámi and Indigenous knowledge. The study concludes with some recommendations in order to begin a transformation of higher educational institutions to make space for a pluriversity, anchored in the position that this the most effective strategy for optimum climate mitigation efforts.