A Theoretical Framework for the Design of Culturally Adaptive Instructional Technology in Nigerian Educational Contexts

Instructional technology designed for Nigerian educational contexts must account for cultural dimensions including communal learning preferences, oral tradition knowledge transmission, multilingual environments, and context-specific motivational systems that generic educational technology designs systematically ignore. This study developed an original theoretical framework for culturally adaptive instructional technology design in Nigerian educational contexts. A theory-building methodology was employed, combining systematic review of culturally adaptive learning technology design (60 publications from 2019 to 2024), co-design research with 120 teachers and students from schools in Sokoto (NW), Oyo (SW), and Borno (NE) States to document cultural dimensions of effective instructional technology use, and expert consultation with 25 educational technology and cultural studies specialists. Systematic review confirmed that existing culturally adaptive design frameworks were derived from East Asian or North American contexts, with only 3 publications addressing West African cultural dimensions. Co-design research identified 11 culturally specific dimensions of effective instructional technology in Nigerian contexts, including oral narrative content preference, group achievement framing, moral and religious contextualisation, local language affordances, and low-distraction interface design for low-digital-literacy environments. The original Culturally Adaptive Instructional Technology Design Framework (CAITDF) proposes design criteria across five cultural adaptation dimensions: epistemic adaptation (knowledge representation), relational adaptation (social learning architecture), motivational adaptation (incentive and value alignment), linguistic adaptation (multilingual affordance), and aesthetic adaptation (culturally resonant interface design). Expert validation confirmed the framework's theoretical originality.

Keywords: culturally adaptive technology, instructional design, Nigeria, educational technology, theoretical framework