Culturally Relevant Curriculum(CRC) in Nigeria: Project Report
Professor Mel Gray, University of Newcastle, Australia, Professor
Uzoma Okoye, University of Nigeria, Nigeria, Dr Susan Levy,
University of Dundee, Scotland, UK, and Solomon Amadasun, Deakin
University, Australia

Correspondence: Mel.Gray@newcastle.edu.au

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Executive Summary
Funded by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), International
Projects Fund (IP22-09), the Culturally Relevant Curriculum (CRC) Project sought to further
the interests of social work educators in Nigeria endeavouring to develop an indigenous,
culturally relevant curriculum. Though focused on Nigerian social work education, more
broadly it sought to further the African and global discourse surrounding the decolonisationand diversification of knowledge valued and centred within academia, education, and practice.
As the first comprehensive study of Nigerian social work academics’ perspectives on cultural
relevance, it provides a research model for use in other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa andbeyond, for those interested in developing a culturally relevant social work curriculum.

Following the compilation of a database on Nigerian social work academics, the researchers
conducted a thorough, systematic review of the literature on or related to Nigerian social work
published by Nigerian social work academics in international, African, and national journals.
The researchers found 308 articles showing a wide range of research and scholarship coveringa broad spectrum of locally and culturally relevant issues. The online survey sought further
information on the social work curriculum, culturally relevant content in the existing
curriculum, understandings of cultural relevance, and academics’ views on a more culturally
relevant curriculum. Mailed to Nigerian social work academics (n=160), it produced 49
responses.

The study found that Nigerian academics saw a need to generate more research and caseexamples of African and Nigerian social work; develop local and culturally relevant Africanand Nigerian social work practice models and theories; engage in the ethical dilemmas ofworking with traditional cultural practices; and integrate and value experiential knowledge insocial work education.

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Culturally Relevant Curriculum (CRC) ProjectIntroduction
Historically, formal social work in Nigeria came with a push from the United Nations to
introduce the profession to non-Western regions around the world. British colonialism
introduced social work to Nigeria in its thrust to train employees in its fledgling social
administration. The British legacy left social work services underpinned by knowledge andpractice models imported from Britain. Still heavily steeped in Western knowledge, social
work programs across Nigeria’s universities were working to create a more balanced
curriculum with local and indigenous content relevant to Nigerian society. The National
Universities Commission (NUC) that accredited and supported courses and curricula requireda program review every five years that reported inter alia on progress in indigenising university
curricula. There were several challenges for social work educators, not least instituting aunified process of curriculum review and achieving agreement on course composition andcontent given regional diversities across Nigeria and the ongoing dominance of sociology inmany universities. While there was a burgeoning literature on African and Nigerian social
work, there were not enough concrete practice examples for use in teaching. Against thisbackdrop, the purpose of the research was to compile material for a culturally relevant
curriculum from a thorough review of literature published by academics in 12 institutions
offering social work, who agreed to participate in the study.

Methodology
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka’s (UNN) research ethics committee provided ethics
approval for the research ‒ UNN Ethics Clearance Certificate no. is UNN/EC/018SC/SW/401/AUG-26 – on August 26, 2022. The study proceeded in five stages:
1. Compilation of a database on Nigerian social work academics
2. Systematic literature review
3. Online survey
4. Culturally relevant curriculum workshop
5. Reporting, development of project outputs, and dissemination of findings3

Database on Nigerian Social Work Academics
Through direct contact with Nigerian heads of social work schools and departments, and web
searches, the researchers compiled a database on 160 social work academics in 12 higher
education institutions offering social work, including three teaching social work in otherlocations. In this process, the researchers informed the heads of social work about the researchand the purpose of collecting information on Nigerian social work academics. All but one
agreed to participate in the project and provide data on social work academics in theirrespective schools. The researchers compiled a blank spreadsheet for them to complete,
including columns for name, title, age group, position, highest social work qualification, email
address, courses taught, and web links to publications. From there, the researchers conducted
web searches to fill in missing data, where possible (not all the universities had active up-todate websites) though many academics had profiles on Google Scholar, Academia.edu, andResearchGate.

Literature Review
The purpose of the literature search was to locate local literature, i.e., papers by Nigerian social
work academics, published in international, African, and Nigerian social work and related
journals that could serve as references for, and undergird, culturally relevant education andpractice. The researchers compiled an annotated bibliography of the literature collected noting:
1. Areas of academic publications (problems and issues)
2. Social work focus (education and or practice)
3. Field or context (health, child welfare, social development, and so on)
4. Content relating to culturally unique features (of ethnic groups or cultures)

Online Survey and Focus Group
Data were collected (online survey and focus group) to elicit further information on social work
curriculum content taught at Nigerian universities, social work academics thoughts on, andtheir experience of, and thoughts on, current and future use of a CRC. The researchers email
an invitation to participate in an online survey to 160 Nigerian social work academics thatremained for completion during October 2022; the completion rate was 20%. The CRC focus
group took place in Lagos, Nigeria, in November 2022, with social work academics (n=10)
from the Universities of Nigeria, Lagos, Ibadan, and Ilorin.

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Project Outputs and Dissemination of Findings
The project outcomes included a comprehensive report, annotated bibliography, conference
presentations, and publications in peer-reviewed social work journals, and chapter in the Levy,
Okoye, Ingram, and Tanga (forthcoming) Routledge Handbook on African Social Work
Education, as well as a website crcproject.org for knowledge dissemination.

Findings and Discussion
Literature review
The literature search found 308 articles written by social work academics that addressed issues
on or relating to social work and social problems in Nigeria. Though many Nigerian academics
did not publish directly on social work, they nevertheless published in related areas that might
inform social work education and practice. They published in international (n=114), African(n=41), and Nigerian (n=47) social work and related journals. The researchers added 106
articles that met the search criteria, while conducting the review, mostly acquired throughonline searches of academics’ online profiles and direct contact with academics in the databaseof Nigerian academics.

The researchers found a substantial body of literature showing a wide range of researchcovering a broad range of locally and culturally relevant issues published by Nigerian social
work academics. Of the 308 articles reviewed, 186 reported on empirical studies, while 122
were theoretical or descriptive papers. Among the empirical papers, 107 used a qualitative
research design, with small, targeted local samples, relying mainly on in-depth and keyinformant interviews, and focus groups for data collection, while 58 employed a quantitative
research design, drawing largely on a cross-sectional survey research approach collecting datafrom respondents at a single point in time. There were 14 mixed-methods studies and sevenreviews of the literature. Collectively, the empirical studies reached close to 65,000 individuals.

The researchers grouped the papers into 22 themes, ranked according to the frequency of papers
in each category. Thereafter, they grouped the themes to reach the main findings emanatingfrom the systematic literature review, as shown in Table 1:5

1. Most published (> 20 papers): covered areas related to established areas of practice(n=179), namely, health (n=69), ageing (n=44), child welfare (n=38), and social
work education (n=34).
2. Moderately published (10-20 papers): concerned issues directly related to social
work (n= 81), namely, practice (n=18), social work profession (n=17), community
development (n=11), as well as issues related to gender and gender-based violence(20), and migration, refugees, internal displacement, and trafficking (15).
3. Least published (< 10 papers): related to emerging areas of practice (n=48), such as
indigenous welfare (n=7), environmental social work (n=5), and religion andspirituality (n=3), or areas where social workers had failed to gain a strong foothold,such as disability (n=6) and addictions (n=2).

Table 1: Literature Review Themes by Frequency of Publication
Findings

Theme

No. of%

Papers1.

Most Published (>20

Medical, health, and mental health69

papers)Ageing44

Child welfare

38

Social work education
Subtotal
2.

Moderately Published

Gender and gender-based violence20(10-20 papers)

Practice

18

Social work profession

17

Migration: refugees, internal displacement, trafficking

15

Community development

11

Subtotal
3.

34
179

81

Least published (<20

Young people8

papers)Indigenous welfare

7

Disability

6

Crime, conflict, and peacebuilding

6

Environmental social work

5

Industrial social work4

School social work

4

Religion and spirituality

3

Death and bereavement2

Addictions

2

LGBTQi+1

58

26

Subtotal

48

16

TOTAL

308

100

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The annotated bibliography distributed to Nigerian academics in the study’s database listed theliterature according to these main themes for matching to associated courses, providing URLs
for online access, wherever possible. Overall, the thematic weighting of literature across areas
directly on, or relevant or related to, social work education and practice suggested an imbalance
between academic areas of research interest, the courses academics taught, and the practicecontext, as shown by the abundance of papers, in a very short time, on Covid-19. Academics
responded opportunistically to the journals’ interest in papers on the pandemic even though
Nigerian social workers played little to no part in practice in this area. As regards advancing
culturally relevant issues, many papers addressed sociocultural factors in diverse areas withthe greatest focus on cultural relevance and indigenous social work in relation to social work
education and many authors alluding to precolonial indigenous practices and support systems.

There would appear to be a growing awareness of the need for cultural relevance among
academics that suggested a cultural shift within academia. On the criterion of addressing social
problems, most scholars agreed on social work’s role in addressing local issues and the large
literature reviewed suggested a burgeoning scholarship on longstanding and emerging social
problems, like human trafficking and displacement, seeking to carve out a path for social
workers when avenues of practice opened in these contexts. The optimism of these social work
scholars was commendable given Nigeria’s minimalist welfare provision and poor service
infrastructure. Though all the articles addressed social problems directly or indirectly, none
provided a clear idea of the practice context or organisations employing social workers
addressing these problems. There were no case studies of practice. The fact that problems
related to ageing, health, and child welfare received widespread coverage suggested that thesewere established areas of social work practice, while other long-recognised practice contexts,
such as disabilities, youth, and addictions, received considerably less scholarly attention,suggesting social work had failed to gain a foothold in these problem areas. Also absent wereanalyses of poverty and developmental interventions. As regards papers directly addressing
cultural and local relevance, the papers collectively covered areas relating to:
1. Theorising and contributing to indigenisation and cultural relevance2. Professionalising social work and increasing recognition of the profession
3. Providing an evidence base for teaching and practice
4. Advancing a culturally relevant social work curriculum

7The literature theorising indigenisation and cultural relevance discussed social work’s
responsiveness to Nigeria’s diverse ethnoreligious and cultural groups and local social
problems, including the development of local, culturally relevant education and practicemodels and approaches. There were many articles on the social work profession and the needfor supportive legislation to raise its status in Nigerian society and the value of this. A common
theme in the literature in all areas was the undervaluing of social work and the lack ofappreciation of its actual and potential contribution to Nigerian society. While many authors
mentioned the paucity of services and lack of policy implementation, few linked this directly
to social work’s struggle for recognition. There was widespread agreement on the need for
professionalisation and the importance of ethics and practice guidelines to protect professional
integrity, with many wanting the social work title to apply only to qualified (degreed) social
workers. As regards an evidence base for practice, while the literature comprised 186 researchbased articles, most provided little to guide practice, referring to social work roles with broad
brushstrokes rather than attention to developing empirically based locally relevant practicemodels or evaluating the effectiveness of those in use. The literature advancing cultural
relevance in social work education suggested teaching students about the Nigerian context;
providing knowledge on local social problems and strategies to address pressing issues,
including course content on cultural and ethnoreligious diversity and religion and spirituality.

Online Survey and Focus Group
While the literature review revealed a large and growing body of Nigerian social work literature(308 papers) that educators could use in Nigerian teaching and course and curriculum
development, key findings from the online survey showed that this was not happening yet.
Only 28% of the literature used being Nigerian, 23% African, and 49% international andWestern in origin, as shown in Figure 1. Furthermore, 40% of survey respondents stated thatless than half the social work curriculum at their university was relevant to Nigerian culture,with 29% perceiving that more than half the curriculum was relevant to Nigerian culture, as
shown in Figure 2.

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Figure 1: Sources of Literature used in Social Work Education in Nigerian Universities

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

49%
28%

23%

Nigerian

AfricanInternational

Source: CRC Online Survey

Figure 2: Nigerian Social Work Curriculum and Relevance to Nigerian Culture

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

40%
29%
22%
6%

3%
None

Less than
Half

Half

More than
Half

All

Source: CRC Online Survey

Conclusions
The Nigerian literature conveyed the complexities of developing a culturally relevant
curriculum, despite which there were concerted attempts to theorise what this might entail, theabsence of concrete practice models and case examples, notwithstanding. Lacking in much ofthis literature was a close description of social work roles in contemporary practiceenvironments. Much of the Nigerian literature discussed social work in general, hortatory
terms, emphasising its value orientations and ambitious goals. The main conclusions were that9

there was a substantial body of literature showing a wide range of research covering a broad
range of locally and culturally relevant issues published by Nigerian social work academics.
However, overall, the thematic weighting of literature across areas directly on, or relevant or
related to, social work education and practice suggested an imbalance between academic areasof research interest, the courses academics taught, and the practice context. In the final analysis,
Nigerian academics saw a culturally relevant curriculum as comprising three main areas, as
shown in Figure 3:
1. Indigenous knowledge: Incorporating age-long practices that have proved useful inproblem-solving interventions with clients, as well as reviewing and incorporating
indigenous social work literature from other African countries.
2. Ethical considerations and social work values: Providing knowledge that is open,
honest, and critical to challenging long-held religious and traditional beliefs andpractices that are not in keeping with internationally accepted social work values
and ethics and practice methods.
3. Experiential knowledge: Prioritising local perspectives by attaching importance topeople’s way of life; that is, their way of doing things, with students’ cultures andexperiences an asset. Integrating and valuing experiential knowledge extended
understanding of indigenous knowledge, and offered a new approach to conceive a
CRC within an African context.
Finally, the study led to the development of a new way of conceiving a CRC:

A culturally relevant curriculum (CRC) in social work education comprises coursesthat teach students to respond to local social problems, issues, and contexts that are
based on, and informed by, local social work-related literature, experiential
knowledge, and a critical understanding of culture. A CRC is relevant to social work
education in the Global South and Global North, and aligns with global social workvalues and ethics to prepare graduates to work across and within different cultures.

10Figure 3: Reconceptualising Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Indigenous Knowledge•Incorporating age-long practices that have proved useful in problem-solving
interventions with clients.
Ethical Considerations and Socoial Work Values•Providing knoweldge that is open, honest, and critical to challenging long-held
religious and traditional beliefs and practices that are not in keeping withinternationally accepted social work values and ethics and practice methods.
Experiential Knowledge•Prioritising local perspectives by attaching importance to people's way of life,that is, their way of doing things.
•Students' cultures and experiences are an asset.
Source: CRC Online Survey and Focus Group

Recommendations
Our first recommendation relates to our project methodology that is easily transferable to othercontexts for researchers in other settings to follow. To decolonise social work curriculum in
the Global South and Global North, there is a need for more published literature from the
Global South and access to this literature. This study has provided concrete evidence that there
is a substantial literature on social work in Nigeria, but academics are not using this extensively
in social work teaching. Based on our findings in this study, our further recommendations toguide other countries in the Global South to bring local and contextualised knowledge from theperiphery to the core of social work education, as they continue to indigenise the social work
curriculum, are as follows:
1. Review and use indigenous social work literature from other African countries
2. Generate more research and case examples of African and Nigerian social work.
3. Develop local and culturally relevant African-Nigerian social work practice models
and theories.
4. Engage in the ethical dilemmas of working with traditional cultural practices, andthat arise in teaching cultural relevance within a context dominated by internationalsocial work knowledge and practice.
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Moving forward to achieve change, the researchers believe that educators need to harmonise
indigenous and Western knowledge in the teaching of social work, since both are important inaddressing social work’s central principles of social justice, human rights, and respect for
ethnocultural and religious diversities. For Nigerian academics, a culturally relevant
educational strategy would engage key stakeholders in overcoming the challenges ofindigenising the social work curriculum.

Dissemination to dateGray, M., Levy, S., & Okoye, U. (forthcoming). Complexities involved in establishing a culturally
relevant social work curriculum in Nigeria. In S. Levy, U. Okoye, R. Ingram, & P. Tanga(eds), Routledge Handbook on African Social Work Education. London: Routledge.
Gray, M., Levy, S., Okoye, U., & Amadasun, S. Culturally Relevant Curriculum (CRC) Project:
Identifying local literature that addresses local problems to inform social work education in
Nigeria. Paper in preparation for submission to International Social Work.
Levy, S., Gray, M., Okoye, U., & Amadasun, S. (2023). Decolonising social work through culturally
relevant curricula. Paper presented at the 12th European Conference for Social Work
Research (ECSWR): Social Work Research Through and Towards Human Relationships,
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, April 12-14.

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