Narrative Inquiry into the Professional Lives of Veteran Teachers in Nigeria: Resilience, Identity, and Pedagogical Wisdom

This study employs narrative inquiry to explore the professional lives of veteran teachers in Nigerian secondary schools, examining the dimensions of resilience, professional identity evolution, and accumulated pedagogical wisdom over careers spanning 20 or more years. Veteran teachers represent a critical but undervalued repository of localised pedagogical knowledge in Nigeria, and their professional experiences contain insights for teacher preparation, retention policy, and the development of culturally situated teaching models. The study is situated in South West, South East, and North Central Nigeria, with 36 purposively selected veteran teachers from Lagos, Enugu, and Plateau states engaged over 14 months. Data were generated through three-interview biographical series, professional artefact collection, classroom observation, and reflective dialogue sessions. Clandinin and Connelly's Narrative Inquiry Methodology and Polkinghorne's Narrative Analysis framework guided data interpretation. The study draws on Day and Gu's Teacher Resilience Framework, McAdams' Life Narrative Theory, and Shulman's Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Findings are expected to generate rich narrative portraits of veteran teacher professional identity phases, resilience strategies, and pedagogical wisdom that extend current models of teacher career development. Specific attention is given to how teachers in under-resourced and conflict-adjacent settings develop adaptive expertise over time. Recommendations address teacher education institutions on embedding veteran teacher knowledge through mentoring programmes and reflective practicum co-mentorship models. Keywords: narrative inquiry, veteran teachers, professional resilience, pedagogical wisdom, Nigeria