Epistemic Justice and the Decolonisation of HRM Curricula in Nigerian Universities: A Critical Pedagogical Investigation

This study investigates epistemic justice and the decolonisation of HRM curricula in Nigerian universities, examining how inherited colonial knowledge frameworks shape what is taught, legitimised, and excluded in HR management education, and with what consequences for graduates and organisational practice. The study argues that Nigerian HRM education predominantly reproduces Western Euro-American HR theories as universal knowledge, marginalising indigenous management philosophies and context-specific organisational realities. The research employs a critical qualitative design, combining institutional curriculum analysis of HRM syllabi from 24 federal and state universities across all geopolitical zones with 38 in-depth interviews with HRM lecturers, students, and HR practitioners. Discourse analysis and the sociology of knowledge framework are applied to syllabi texts. Epistemic Justice Theory, Decolonial Theory, and Critical HRM Pedagogy jointly provide the theoretical architecture. Findings reveal that over 85 percent of HRM curricular content in sampled universities draws exclusively on Western-origin theories, textbooks, and case studies, with minimal incorporation of African management scholarship, indigenous organisational knowledge, or Nigeria-specific empirical evidence. Students and practitioners report a persistent application gap between what is taught and what is encountered in Nigerian organisational realities. The study develops the Decolonial HRM Curriculum Framework, specifying how HRM syllabi can be restructured to achieve epistemic pluralism without abandoning scholarly rigour. Original contributions include an Epistemic Justice Audit Tool for HRM curricula, a Decolonial Content Integration Matrix, and a theoretical synthesis of Ubuntu and Western HRM pedagogical traditions. Keywords: Epistemic Justice, Decolonisation, HRM Curriculum, Nigerian Universities, Critical Pedagogy.