Decolonising Adult Education Curriculum in Nigeria: A Participatory Action Research Approach

This study undertakes a participatory action research process for decolonising adult education curriculum in Nigeria, producing both a theoretical framework and a practical curriculum design model grounded in community knowledge and African philosophical foundations. Nigerian adult education curricula have been shaped by colonial education structures that privileged Western knowledge systems, English as the medium of instruction, and development frameworks oriented toward metropolitan norms. Decolonising this curriculum is not merely symbolic but is argued to be essential for producing learning that is genuinely empowering for African adult learners. This study employs participatory action research in three community sites in Imo State, Kaduna State, and Borno State, spanning South East, North West, and North East geopolitical contexts, engaging 90 community members, 30 adult educators, and 15 curriculum specialists in collaborative curriculum review and redesign processes over 18 months. Africanist philosophical frameworks including Ubuntu, Ujima, and indigenous knowledge epistemologies are applied in curriculum redesign deliberations. Action cycles of planning, implementation, observation, and reflection generate progressive curriculum iterations. Findings reveal that community-controlled decolonised curriculum processes produce learning materials of higher perceived relevance, greater engagement, and stronger learner empowerment signals than standard national curriculum content. The study contributes an original decolonial curriculum design framework for Nigerian adult education and a repository of community-developed module examples. It recommends that UBEC adopt a participatory decolonial curriculum development process for the next national curriculum revision.

Keywords: decolonisation, adult education curriculum, participatory action research, Nigeria, indigenous knowledge.