Co-Designing Civic Education for the Circumpolar North is a NSF project headed up by PIs from the Information School, College of the Environment and Canadian Studies.
In October 2022, the collaborators of the project met in Finland to visit University of the Arctic, Inari and the Sámi Education Institute. They hosted an in-person workshop in Rovaniemi and Inari, Finland to foster collaborative bonds with participants and solidify ideas presented in the first year of the project. The workshop had an international presence, with participants from Canada, the UK, Finland, and the United States.
In collaboration with the University of the Arctic, housed at University of Lapland, the research PIs and participants had the opportunity to learn about programs related to circumpolar education in an Arctic context. The program at the University of Lapland enabled participants to think about teaching and innovation, priming participants for work and forming new educational concepts for writing future NSF grant proposals.
In Inari, workshop participants had the opportunity to converse with a Sámi vocational school where they discussed Indigenous identities in relation to citizenship education. The group also visited the Siika Museum that showcased Sámi art and culture. The week concluded with a formal workshop and the forming of groups based on research interests.
The workshop immediately yielded results: a group of participants and PI Jason Young have set in motion the application for an NSF grant creating connections across and among Arctic communities in an initiative called ARCCCTEK (Arctic and Circumpolar Communities Converging through Technologically Enabled Knowledge Exchanges). This new proposal will again link College of the Environment with the Information School and the Canadian Studies Center to explore new ways to strengthen circumpolar communities.
Approximately 15 collaborators will visit the University of Washington in May 2023 for the final workshop.
For a photo album of the Finland 2022 meetings click here.
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Co-Designing Civic Education for the Circumpolar North, is a collaborative research project that is producing a model for developing and teaching civic education for the circumpolar North. This project is part of the National Science Foundation program Navigating the New Arctic (NNA). NNA embodies an important forward-looking response by the Foundation to profound challenges in the Arctic as a result of warming temperatures. The planning project was awarded $300,000 (2021-2023). Jason Young, i-School, serves as PI; Nadine Fabbi, Canadian Studies and Michelle Koutnik, Earth and Space Sciences, serve as co-PIs.