Influence of School Proprietorship on Teachers’ Perceptions and Preferences for the Nigerian Social Studies Curriculum Models in Kwara State

Abstract

Curriculum conceptions that are different from the curriculum developers’ perception of the curriculum at the stage of implementation by implementers may derail the curriculum on account of irreconcilable discrepancies between the developed and transacted curriculum. Therefore, this study identified public and private Secondary School teachers’ perceptions of, and preferences for Social Studies Curriculum Models. It also examined the influence of school proprietorship (public or private proprietorship) on teachers’ perception of, and preference for Social Studies Curriculum Models. The research sample consisted of “190 public and 11 private secondary school teachers drawn from 108 randomly selected public and eight purposively selected Secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. A two-in-one researcher-designed Likert- type Social Studies Curriculum/Models Perception Checklist and Preference Scale (SSCMP/PS) was used for data collection. The perception scores of Social Studies teacher respondents from public and private secondary schools were subjected to Percentage, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Friedman Analysis of Variance by Ranks (FANOVAR) statistics to determine their perceptions and preferences for the four Social Studies curriculum models as well as the influence of school proprietorship on teachers’ perceptions and preferences for the curriculum models. The results showed that the two categories of teachers do not differ significantly in their perceptions of, and preferences for the Social Studies Curriculum Models and that they had broadly similar eclectic and hierarchical patterns of perceptions and preferences. The results also showed that school proprietorship has no significant moderating influence on teachers’ perceptions and preferences for the Social Studies Curriculum Models. It was therefore concluded that the private and public secondary school Social Studies teachers had a broadly similar perceptions and preferences for of the Social Studies Curriculum Models which centred on Citizen Education, Unified Integrated, Social Sciences Structure and Reflective Inquiry Models. It was accordingly recommended that school proprietors should intensify efforts to sustain the teaching of Social Studies in Nigerian Basic Schools in a manner that is consistent with Unified Integrated, Citizenship Education and Reflective Inquiry Models intended by the curriculum developers to adequately achieve its intended objectives.

Keywords: Social Studies Curriculum Models, Teachers Perceptions, Teachers Preferences, School Proprietorship, Public and Private Secondary Schools.