Social Movement Learning and Adult Education in the Nigerian Labour Movement

This study examined social movement learning processes within the Nigerian Labour Congress and affiliated trade unions, investigating how collective adult education and informal learning generated within labour movement contexts develops workers' critical consciousness, advocacy capacity, and civic agency. Social movement learning, theorised as the informal and incidental learning that occurs through participation in collective social action, represents an important but neglected dimension of adult education in the Nigerian context, where trade union movements have historically been central sites of working-class adult education. The study employed a historical-empirical research design combining analysis of Nigerian Labour Congress archival materials from 1979 to 2023, oral history interviews with 45 veteran labour movement educators and activists across Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, and Kaduna, and participant observation within current union education programmes. Findings revealed a rich and historically significant tradition of worker education within the Nigerian labour movement, encompassing formal worker education colleges, consciousness-raising programmes during military rule periods, and informal collective learning within industrial action campaigns. Social movement learning within the NLC context generated distinctive critical consciousness development trajectories not replicable in institutionalised adult education settings, particularly in developing collective rather than individual analytical orientations to workplace and societal problems. The study traces the erosion of this tradition during structural adjustment and liberalisation periods and analyses contemporary revival efforts. Original contributions include a Nigerian Social Movement Adult Learning Model and a historically grounded typology of trade union education approaches. Keywords: social movement learning, trade union education, Nigerian Labour Congress, worker education, critical consciousness.