Analytical Study of the Research Gap in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for Nigerian Indigenous Language Instruction

Culturally sustaining pedagogy extends culturally responsive teaching by actively sustaining the cultural competencies of diverse student communities, yet its application to Nigerian indigenous language instruction remains theoretically underdeveloped and empirically uninvestigated, representing a significant research gap. This study examined the research gap in culturally sustaining pedagogy for Nigerian indigenous language instruction through systematic literature review and original primary research. A systematic scoping review of nine databases identified 23 publications from 2018 to 2024 addressing culturally responsive pedagogy in Nigerian language education, of which only 4 specifically applied sustaining rather than responsive frameworks. Primary research comprised focus groups with 40 Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa language teachers from Lagos, Anambra, and Kano States respectively, exploring their current cultural integration practices and knowledge gaps. The scoping review confirmed that research on culturally sustaining approaches to Nigerian language teaching is almost entirely absent, with available studies dominated by South Western contexts. Primary research revealed that language teachers valued cultural content but lacked frameworks for distinguishing cultural knowledge, cultural competency maintenance, and cultural revitalisation as distinct instructional goals. The study identifies six priority research questions for developing a culturally sustaining pedagogy framework for Nigerian indigenous languages and proposes a research design for empirically testing a three-year culturally sustaining language curriculum pilot.

Keywords: culturally sustaining pedagogy, indigenous language instruction, Nigeria, research gap, curriculum design