Developing a Culturally Resonant Theory of Adult Learning for Igbo Communities in South East Nigeria

This study develops a culturally resonant theory of adult learning grounded in Igbo philosophical traditions and community knowledge practices in South East Nigeria, contributing an original African adult learning theory to the field dominated by Western theoretical frameworks. Mainstream adult learning theories including andragogy, self-directed learning, and transformative learning were developed in Western cultural contexts and embed assumptions about individualism, autonomy, and rationality that may be culturally incongruent with communal African learning epistemologies. This study uses an African ethnographic methodology combining philosophy-based conceptual analysis with extensive fieldwork in Igbo communities in Anambra, Enugu, and Ebonyi States. Data collection methods include in-depth interviews with 50 community elders and knowledge holders, participation in traditional learning forums including age-grade educational practices and masquerade performance traditions, and philosophical text analysis of Igbo epistemological literature. Ubuntu-inspired communal epistemology and Odinala cultural wisdom frameworks are applied analytically. Findings identify seven distinctive features of Igbo adult learning culture including communal knowledge validation, age-grade structured learning progression, mastery through performance, elder authority in knowledge legitimation, proverb-based abstraction, and cyclical seasonal learning rhythms. These features are synthesised into an original Igbo Adult Learning Framework that complements and contextualises existing adult learning theories. The study recommends the framework's adoption in adult education facilitator training programmes in South East Nigeria and proposes a broader African Adult Learning Theory research agenda.

Keywords: African adult learning theory, Igbo culture, indigenous epistemology, South East Nigeria, culturally resonant education.