Power, Identity, and Technology: A Critical Race and Postcolonial Analysis of EdTech Implementation in Northern Nigerian Schools

This study examines the intersections of power, identity, and technology through a critical race and postcolonial theoretical lens applied to educational technology implementation in Northern Nigerian schools. The adoption of ed-tech products developed predominantly in Western and Asian contexts raises questions about whose knowledge, languages, and pedagogical assumptions these tools encode and reinforce. This study employs a critical qualitative ethnographic methodology, conducting 18 months of fieldwork in six schools across Katsina, Kebbi, and Zamfara States in the North West zone and Yobe and Borno States in the North East. Data collection methods include participant observation in 120 ICT-integrated lesson sessions, 50 in-depth teacher and student interviews, and document analysis of ed-tech product interfaces and content. Postcolonial discourse analysis and critical race theory provided the analytical frameworks. Findings reveal systematic marginalisation of Hausa language, Northern Nigerian cultural narratives, and Islamic epistemological orientations within dominant ed-tech products deployed in these schools. Students demonstrate identity dissonance when engaging with culturally incongruent digital content. Teachers develop unofficial workarounds that recontextualise digital content for local relevance, constituting acts of pedagogical resistance. The study makes an original contribution to the critical educational technology literature by centring Northern Nigerian students' epistemic rights in technology design and deployment discourse. Keywords: critical race theory, postcolonialism, educational technology, Northern Nigeria, identity