Adaobiagu N. Obiagu

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

COVID-19 Pandemic and Education: Nigerian Parents’ Approach and Perception of Children’s Education Based on Socioeconomic Indicators

By Ezinne O. Idika

This paper, using 201 parents' reports collected via a descriptive survey, explores (a) how children from different socioeconomic backgrounds (education and income) engage in learning in the absence of inclusive actions to keep learning ongoing in educational contexts in Nigeria; and (b) the indirect impact of COVID-19 on children's education (children's access to learning materials, engagement in learning, and educational achievement). Findings showed that many Nigerian children engaged in learning and parents perceived educational achievement during pandemic school closure as worse. Socioeconomic backgrounds were associated with patterns of engagement. Children from highly educated and high-income backgrounds had significantly higher access to learning resources, which were also associated with their greater engagement in learning, than those children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Children from low-income backgrounds were more engaged in face-to-face outside the home learning. This could have been due to the low access to online resources and low compliance to COVID-19 rules (driven by mistrust in government) of low-income and less educated families. Implications of findings for informing educational intervention programs, including post-COVID pedagogies, are discussed. © The Author(s) 2023.

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Toward a Decolonized Moral Education for Social Justice in Africa

By Adaobiagu N. Obiagu

Many moral and social problems affecting African people and development could be associated with (neo)colonial moral education problems in Africa: perpetuation of excessive materialism, individual competitiveness, and demonization of African traditional values. To solve African moral problems and realize Pan-African goals, we need a more contextualized approach to moral education in schools that takes into account moral values from African context. Hence, this paper proposed strengthening moral education in Africa through a decolonial educational approach that disrupts the conventional through anti-colonial curricular and pedagogical practices of moral education for social justice. It first conceptualized moral education and social justice and reviewed literature on moral education in Africa to illuminate its colonizing elements. The proposed decolonized moral education model, critiquing Kohlbergian moral development theory as ignoring the (neo)colonial struggles of colonized and Indigenous people, draws on Ubuntu philosophy, Afrocentricity, and postcolonial theories to develop five processes for the decolonization—(a) Indigenous knowledge, values, and practices’ consciousness raising, (b) moral diversity mapping and comparison, (c) critical evaluation of Indigenous moral disrupters, (d) prosocial anger toward historical/ongoing moral annihilation and complicity, and (e) Indigenous moral agency. The curriculum and practice implications of the Model are discussed. © The Author(s) 2023.

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