DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLED-BASED LEADERSHIP CURRICULUM FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Leaders emerge from among the citizens. Civic Education is taught in secondary school to make students responsible and effective citizens but adequate provision has not been made to develop their leadership skills. Evidence has shown that many secondary school leavers exhibit leadership deficit in Nigeria. Previous studies focused more on interventions for improving learning outcomes than developing skill-based leadership curriculum. This study, therefore, was carried out to develop skill-based leadership curriculum for infusion into secondary school Civic Education curriculum in Southwestern, Nigeria. The study was premised on Katz Three-Skill Theory, while the QUAN+qual triangulation design of mixed method was adopted. The multi-stage sampling procedure was used. Four states (Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ondo) from the existing six states in Southwestern, Nigeria were randomly selected. Four senatorial districts (Lagos West; Oyo Central; Osun East; Ondo Central) were randomly selected. The stratified sampling technique was utilised to select two Local Government Areas (LGAs) – one rural and one urban; and two schools per LGA were purposively selected. Thirty-five school heads and thirty-two Civic Education teachers were enumerated, while 1600 senior secondary students (100 per school) were randomly selected. The study was carried out in three stages (Need Assessment; Designing and Validation; and Demonstration). The instruments used were Students’ Perception (r=0.81), School Heads and Teachers’ Perception (r=0.88) of the Need for the Development and Infusion of skill-based Leadership Curriculum Questionnaires, Stakeholders’ Perception of what should constitute the Content of the Leadership Curriculum (r=0.89), Students’ Perception of the Classroom Functionality of the Curriculum (r=0.89), and Validators’ Assessment of Classroom Functionality of the Curriculum (r=0.87) scales. These were complemented by in-depth interviews conducted with twelve most experienced teachers. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were content-analysed. The participants were female (57.8%) and male 42.2%. The students had the highest number of participants (96.0%); school heads (2.1%) and Teachers (1.9%). Students’ perception ( = 3.32) and teachers’ perception ( = 3.28) of the need for the development and infusion of a leadership education into secondary school curriculum was favourable against the yardstick ofviii 2.50. The perception of what should constitute the contents of the skill-based leadership curriculum by the teachers ( = 1.85) and students ( = 1.81) was high against the yardstick of 1.50. The validators assessment ( = 2.82) and students ( = 3.39) of the classroom functionality of the curriculum was favourable against the threshold of 2.50. The stakeholders considered the present secondary school curriculum inadequate to fully develop students’ leadership skills. Curriculum content identified by stakeholders was consistent with leadership curriculum content in reviewed studies. Stakeholders considered the developed leadership curriculum as relevant, valid and reliable, and recommended its infusion into Civic Education using the shared approach strategy. The school-based curriculum development approach empowered stakeholders to actively participate in the curriculum development and validation process. The developed curriculum addressed the leadership deficits in the existing Civic Education in secondary schools in Southwestern, Nigeria. Policy makers should infuse skill-based leadership curriculum into secondary school Civic Education.