Critical Pedagogy, Civic Education, and Democratic Citizenship Formation in Senior Secondary Schools in North Central Nigeria

This study examines the relationship between critical pedagogy practices in Civic Education classrooms and the formation of democratic citizenship dispositions among senior secondary school students in North Central Nigeria, covering Plateau, Niger, and Nassarawa states. Citizenship education in Nigeria faces acute challenges in contexts marked by inter-ethnic tension, political apathy among youth, and a civic culture that research suggests is characterised by deference rather than participatory democratic engagement. The study employs a critical realist mixed-methods design, combining a quasi-experiment across 12 secondary schools, a citizenship disposition survey of 480 students, and ethnographic classroom observations and teacher interviews in six schools. The experimental treatment involves a 12-week critical pedagogy enriched Civic Education curriculum. Pre-test and post-test democratic citizenship disposition scores and civic knowledge outcomes serve as dependent variables. The study draws on Freire's Critical Pedagogy, Westheimer and Kahne's Citizenship Education Typologies, and Mouffe's Agonistic Democracy Framework. Findings are expected to show that critical pedagogy-enriched instruction produces significantly higher gains in participatory and justice-oriented citizenship dispositions compared to conventional transmission-based Civic Education. Recommendations are directed at the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, secondary school principals, and teacher education institutions on reforming Civic Education pedagogy to embed deliberative and critical approaches. Keywords: critical pedagogy, civic education, democratic citizenship, North Central Nigeria, secondary schools