ANCESTRAL KNOWLEDGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: AN INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This essay-style article examines the capacity for change that traditional Sámi worldviews have in environmental education, suggesting a significant pedagogical restructuring that overcomes the human-centered approach and fragmentation of the Western educational model. Sámi worldviews, which are founded on interrelationship, reciprocity, and respect for all living beings, offer a holistic perspective in which humans do not dominate the environment, but are part of an interconnected ecological and spiritual framework. This challenging vision opposes the utilitarian logic of traditional environmental education, which often limits itself to offering scientific data out of context or encouraging sustainable behaviors without addressing the underlying values that give rise to the ecological crisis. In contrast, the Sámi worldview promotes a relational, ethical, and experiential education, where learning is generated through direct interaction with the environment, oral communication, and community exchange. In this context, the essay suggests an authentic intercultural environmental education, grounded in the co-creation of the curriculum with Sámi communities, intercultural teacher training, territorial pedagogy, and appropriate political support. The main idea argues that true sustainability demands epistemic justice: recognizing that there are diverse ways of knowing, and that Indigenous peoples, like the Sámi, possess crucial wisdom for restoring the relationship between humanity and nature.