Developing an Original Theoretical Framework for Culturally Situated Early Childhood Education in Nigerian Multicultural Contexts

Early childhood education theory has been dominated by developmental universalism that inadequately accounts for the cultural diversity of learning environments, caregiving practices, and knowledge systems in Nigeria's multicultural society, and developing an original culturally situated framework represents a significant contribution to both African ECE theory and global early childhood scholarship. This study developed an original Culturally Situated Early Childhood Education Framework for Nigerian multicultural contexts, drawing on systematic theoretical analysis, empirical grounding across four cultural zones, and expert validation. A constructive theoretical methodology was employed, combining systematic review of 86 culturally responsive and indigenous knowledge publications in ECE from 2018 to 2024, qualitative research with 60 ECD practitioners, elders, and parents from Igbo (SE), Yoruba (SW), Hausa-Fulani (NW), and Tiv (NC) communities, and expert consultation with 25 early childhood education scholars. Systematic review confirmed that existing culturally responsive frameworks (Ladson-Billings, Rogoff, Dahlberg) inadequately theorise collectivist caregiving, intergenerational knowledge transmission, ritual knowledge systems, and community-centred learning epistemologies specific to Nigerian multicultural contexts. Qualitative research generated four Nigeria-specific theoretical constructs: communal developmental responsibility (the community as co-educator), embodied cultural learning (learning through ritual, movement, and performance), intergenerational knowledge transmission (elders as ECD curriculum resources), and ecological developmental embeddedness (learning as inseparable from land, seasons, and community life). The original framework integrates these constructs with compatible elements from Bronfenbrenner, Rogoff, and African Ubuntu philosophy. Expert review by 24 scholars confirmed the framework's original theoretical contribution.

Keywords: culturally situated ECD, Nigerian multicultural contexts, theoretical framework, indigenous knowledge, early childhood theory