Intersectionality, Educational Marginalisation, and Lifelong Learning Among Women in Northern Nigeria: An Original Theoretical Contribution

This study develops an intersectional theoretical analysis of educational marginalisation and lifelong learning among women in northern Nigeria, making an original contribution to the intersection of feminist educational theory, post-colonial studies, and adult education scholarship. Intersectionality theory, which examines how overlapping social identities including gender, ethnicity, religion, class, and disability create compounded experiences of privilege and oppression, has been insufficiently applied to adult education access research in West Africa. This study uses an intersectional feminist methodology, combining life history interviews with 60 women representing diverse intersectional identity positions in Kano, Borno, and Kebbi States with participatory analysis workshops. Life histories are analysed using narrative analysis and intersectional coding frameworks. The study maps how intersecting axes of disadvantage, including being female, from a marginalised ethnic minority, residing in a rural area, and having low household income, compound educational exclusion beyond what any single factor would predict. Findings establish five intersectional educational marginalisation configurations that are unique to the northern Nigerian context and not captured by existing theoretical frameworks developed elsewhere. The concept of educational foreclosure, the complete blocking of learning opportunity at multiple access points simultaneously, is proposed as an original theoretical contribution. The study recommends a theoretical reorientation of Nigerian adult education policy from single-factor targeting to intersectional design approaches that recognise compounded disadvantage.

Keywords: intersectionality, educational marginalisation, women, northern Nigeria, feminist adult education.