Theoretical Foundations of Adult Learning in Indigenous Knowledge Contexts: A Grounded Theory Study in Northern Nigeria

This study developed a grounded theory of adult learning in indigenous knowledge contexts, drawing on empirical fieldwork conducted across Hausa, Fulani, and Kanuri communities in Kano, Katsina, and Borno States, Northern Nigeria. Existing adult learning theories, predominantly developed within Western epistemological frameworks, inadequately account for the distinctive knowledge acquisition, transmission, and validation processes embedded in indigenous African educational traditions. The study employed a constructivist grounded theory design, conducting 78 individual interviews and 24 focus group sessions with adult community members, traditional knowledge custodians, and informal educators across twelve communities over a sixteen-month period. Constant comparative analysis and theoretical sampling guided iterative data collection and theory construction. The emergent substantive theory, provisionally termed Communal Epistemological Anchoring, posits that adult learning in indigenous Northern Nigerian contexts is fundamentally organised around the validation of new knowledge through its resonance with communal memory, elder authority, and spiritual frameworks, rather than through individually centred critical reflection as posited by transformative learning theory. This theoretical contribution challenges Eurocentric individualistic assumptions embedded in canonical adult learning theories and proposes a culturally embedded reframing of knowledge legitimation processes in African adult education. The study advances original theoretical contributions to comparative adult education scholarship and lays a foundation for developing culturally responsive adult education pedagogies in Northern Nigeria. Recommendations include incorporating indigenous epistemology into facilitator training curricula and revising nationally prescribed adult education curricula to reflect epistemological pluralism. Keywords: indigenous knowledge, adult learning theory, grounded theory, Northern Nigeria, epistemology.