Knowledge Management Practices and Institutional Learning in Federal Government Secondary Schools in Nigeria

This study investigates the relationship between knowledge management practices and institutional learning in federal government secondary schools across Nigeria. Knowledge management, encompassing the processes by which organisations create, store, share, and apply knowledge to enhance performance, has received substantial attention in corporate and healthcare contexts but remains theoretically and empirically underdeveloped in Nigerian school administration research. Federal government secondary schools, as nationally distributed institutional sites with shared administrative frameworks, provide an analytically distinctive context for studying knowledge management in educational organisations. The study employs a mixed methods design and samples 360 teachers, vice principals, and principals from 30 federal government secondary schools drawn from all six geopolitical zones. A validated Knowledge Management Practices Scale and an Institutional Learning Indicators Inventory are administered, with data analysed using structural equation modelling. The qualitative phase involves 20 key informant interviews with school principals and educational inspectors, analysed thematically. The study draws on the Knowledge Management Theory of Nonaka and Takeuchi and the Organisational Learning Theory of Argyris and Schon. Findings reveal that knowledge codification, peer learning structures, and principal knowledge sharing behaviour are the most significant positive predictors of institutional learning. Schools that manage professional knowledge systematically demonstrate higher adaptability to curriculum change and better student outcome trajectories. The study makes an original contribution to knowledge management theory in the African school context. Recommendations address the establishment of knowledge sharing platforms within the federal school network. Keywords: knowledge management, institutional learning, federal secondary schools, organisational learning, Nigeria.