Making the invisible visible: Teaching diversity through local places

 

For many students, university means living in a new locality for several years before moving on to the next stage of their lives. This provides an obvious opportunity to explore and understand the place in which they are living. Yet how often do we actively encourage them to do so? Or do we allow them to remain within a university “bubble” that largely excludes the wider community? While there is nothing inherently wrong with developing a strong campus identity, we may be overlooking valuable opportunities to help students understand the social, cultural and linguistic environments around them. For many, university is their first experience of living in a place that differs significantly from the one in which they grew up. As future teachers, they may also find themselves working in schools serving unfamiliar communities. Developing the ability to notice and engage with local diversity can therefore be a valuable part of their professional development.

Trondheim, where I live and work, is located within the South Sámi area of Saepmie. However, centuries of assimilation policies and state oppression have made Sámi presence in the city far less visible than it should be. As a result, awareness of the South Sámi community and its historical and contemporary presence remains limited, despite its importance to the region. In autumn 2025, I walked around our university campuses to document visible signs of Sámi presence. I found a handful of examples (e.g. a flag, a book, a photograph), but very little of a permanent nature (Murray, 2025). This will soon change with the naming of a new bridge on campus in South Sámi. While the naming of a single structure is a modest gesture, it carries important symbolic value: it recognises the university’s location within the South Sámi area of Saepmie and makes Indigenous presence more visible in the everyday landscape. Even small interventions such as this can encourage students to think differently about the place in which they are studying (Murray, 2026).

Encouraging students to become aware of their locality offers rich opportunities for teaching about diversity. Right outside the classroom lies a complex social landscape reflecting local histories, languages, cultures and identities. One effective activity is to explore the linguistic landscape of the local area by documenting signs, notices and other written language in public spaces. This leads naturally to discussions about multilingualism, language policy and whose languages are made visible. The activity can be expanded by examining other aspects of the local semiotic landscape, including statues, memorials, flags, festivals, street names, public art and cultural symbols. Together, these features reveal how communities represent themselves and whose histories are recognised in public space. Rather than discussing diversity only as an abstract concept, students observe how it is expressed – or omitted – in the places they move through every day.

In my own teaching, students work in small groups to document different aspects of the local environment and add their findings (photos and text) to a shared Google Map using location pins. The resulting collaborative map can then be explored together as a virtual tour or used to guide walking tours led by the students themselves. Another related activity involves mapping the soundscape of a particular location by sitting quietly and recording the languages they hear around them. These simple observational tasks encourage students to become more attentive to the multilingual and multicultural character of everyday public spaces.

We also use a more structured activity centred on Sámi history in Trondheim: the Sámi City Walk (https://www.ntnu.edu/sami-city-walk). This takes students around the city centre, introducing them to local Sámi history, culture and contemporary society. I often extend the activity by asking students to document South Sámi language on municipal buildings, raising awareness of the language’s official status within the municipality. Student feedback has been consistently positive. Many comment that, after completing the walking tour, they notice aspects of the city they had previously walked past without recognising. Others describe feeling a stronger connection to Trondheim because they better understand the stories, histories and communities that shape it.

The final stage of the assignment asks students to design a comparable activity for a locality that they know well. This need not focus on Indigenous communities; it may instead explore immigrant communities, local dialects or other aspects of the area’s social and cultural landscape. By first experiencing these activities in Trondheim, students develop an approach that they can adapt to the communities in which they will eventually teach. In doing so, they begin to recognise that every locality offers opportunities to teach about diversity, belonging and identity.

 

Dr. Helen Margaret Murray

Department of Teacher Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

helen.m.murray@ntnu.no

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22976795

 

References

Murray, H. M. (2025). Sjokkert over hvor lite synlig det samiske er på NTNUs campuser. NTNU Open. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5320231

Murray, H. M. (2026). Et viktig skritt for samisk synlighet ved NTNU. NTNU Open. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5536373

Sámi City Walk Project Group. (2024). Sámi City Walk: A city walk through Sámi history in Trondheim. NTNU. https://www.ntnu.edu/sami-city-walk