Empowering the Nigerian Woman for Sustainable National Development: The Role of Critical Education (Published)
The potentials of Nigeria women are underutilized in Nigeria’s quest for sustainable development and this has resulted to the gross undermining of the Nigerian woman including subjecting her to various forms of marginalization, deprivation, domination and other forms of injustices and human right abuses. The undermining of the Nigerian woman has implications for Nigeria’s general development. Using the philosophical method, this paper makes a case for the empowerment of the Nigerian woman through critical education; which is justified on the premise that critical education can critically beam searchlight into political, economic, social, cultural and environmental variables that promote the various inhuman treatments Nigerian women receive and at the same time provide the right education and educational experiences for conscientizing Nigerian women and consequently introduce positive changes. The paper among other things challenges Nigerian women that individual actions and initiatives are critical in the empowerment of the individual and that the process of teaching learners in a critical education class should instill in learners and awareness that they have the power to create history, rewrite history and influence history in their favour through their actions. The paper is optimistic that Nigeria’s sustainable development will be assured when Nigerian women are rightly empowered through critical education.
Keywords: Empowerment, Nigerian Women, critical education, sustainable national development
Perception of Stakeholders’ On Empowering Women for Socio-Economic Development in an Enduring Democracy in North- West Nigeria (Published)
The paper examined the stakeholders’ perception on empowering women for socio-economic development in a enduring democracy in Nigeria. Women are also in the capacity to assist government achieve its laudable goals and objectives through public enlightenment and national mobilization campaigns. In general, education wipes away ignorance, political apathy and encourages mutual; understanding and cooperation among the various strata in any given society. The population of this study consisted of all the stakeholders in education that comprised the students, graduates, teachers, school administrators, Ministry personnel, Quality Assurances officers in the North-west zone of Nigeria. The population total was 1970 out of this numbers, 1261 respondents were proportionately selected for the study. Four states were selected out of the seven North-western states using purposive sampling technique. 3 research questions were raised for the study and three (3) objectives, descriptive statistics was used to answer the research questions.. The study concludes that significant association exist between empowerment and socio-economic development of women by stakeholders’ in an enduring democracy in’ Nigeria. It was recommended that empowerment can successfully be achieved by designing and implementing well planned and organized educational programmes . Women need greater access to educational opportunities, skills acquisition and position of authority for them to be truly empowered.
Keywords: Development, Empowerment, Socio-Economic, Women
Professional Development and Empowerment of Primary School Teachers (Published)
The rapid changes in the socio-economic environment and the consequent pressures for educational reforms make it more than necessary to empower teachers who need to redefine their teaching strategies to meet students’ differentiated needs. Related studies suggest that teachers need to feel empowered to be effective and empower students. Therefore, the empowerment of teachers is at the center of the processes for quality improvement and school upgrade. The purpose of this study is to capture the views of primary education teachers on the opportunities for professional empowerment provided in their school environment. A total of 124 primary education teachers in Ilia Prefecture who participated in the quantitative sample survey completed an electronic questionnaire based on the Teacher Empowerment Scale. The presentation and analysis of the findings show that participants in all dimensions of empowerment have moderate to high degree of agreement. Specifically, the highest average dimension is that of decision-making, while the lowest average is that of professional development.
Keywords: Decision Making, Empowerment, Participation, Professional Development, Teachers