Decolonising Nigerian Higher Education Curriculum: Re-examining the Philosophy, Policy and Structure for Inclusion and Narrative Transformation

This project explores inclusion and exclusion issues within the Nigerian higher education system.

The higher education system in Nigeria is currently facing myriad of challenges. While some of these challenges are existential, others have been ascribed to the incapacity of the "post-colonial" state to adapt to changing times, situations, and social realities (e.g., centralised authoritative management style, continued ideological and epistemological rigidity, access to HE and rights to equal participation in education, funding and curriculum transformation, discrepancies between available graduates and labour market skills, and alienation and exclusion due to a lack of proficiency in the medium of instruction (see Ake, 1979; Chinweizu, 1987; Taiwo, 1993; Okeke, 2001; Okebukola, 2003; Anyanwu, 2011; and Arowosegbe; 2016), which has prompted calls for decolonisation.

Similarly, history was removed from the curriculum in the 1970s, leaving generations of Nigerians unaware of their history (Agbelusi, 2015). Students' anger and frustration with the existing educational system have been amplified through various protests such as #ENDSARS, #ASSUStrike, #SchoolIsAScam #Feemustfall, #Rhodemmustfall at several African universities, calling for the decolonisation of HE curricula in Africa through a reframing of the access, content, and context of the curriculum (Dei, 2015, Le Grange, 2016; Walton, 2018).

This research is aimed to contribute to the decolonial discourse, its struggle and transformation of higher education, especially in the global south, by unmasking the western logic that epistemicides alternative ways of knowing and de-multiculturalise universities through curriculum and pedagogies analysis and assessment. It also aimed to bring to the fore the issues around Inclusion and exclusion raised by the policy of admission and selection into higher education. Finally, it will give the oppressed or marginalised students the avenue to share their everyday experiences of inequity and inequalities due to the colonial nature and structure of the university.

Specifically, this study will answer these questions:

(a) What issues around Inclusion are raised by Nigerian policies of admission and selection to university?
(b) To what extent do the higher education curriculum and pedagogies reflect the socio-cultural reality of the students' pluralistic nature?
(c) What kinds of inequalities do students experience in the Higher Education system in Nigeria?

This study will employ an institutional ethnography involving semi-structured interviews, longitudinal studies, and observations as the qualitative methodology to explore the narrative of Inclusion and exclusion in Nigeria's higher education and hope to develop further while completing this research. Using a purposive sample technique, three institutions in Nigeria will be chosen and visited from the Northcentral, South-South and South-Western based on their diverse enrolment, established practice of Inclusion, and internationalisation. My proposed project partner- Teach for Nigeria, is a partner to these institutions and will provide access and selection of the participants. As an influential advocacy and lobbying organisation in Nigerian education, the body will also be critical to driving the policy/practice impact of the project. During the process of data collection, attention will be on students' knowledge access, curriculum content sensitivity to their socio-cultural reality, and inequalities. An ethical framework and critical reflexivity would guide the data collection and analysis of the interview data.