Influence Of Social Studies Education On Nigeria Culture
[Yoruba people in Atiba local government area of Oyo State]

1.1 Background of the Study

Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavioral conventions that are shared by a group of people, and that influence  (but do not determine) each member’s behavior and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behavior. Culture is a compendium of man’s way of life, language and medium of communication. Culture of a nation depicts their attitude, philosophies, skills, values, knowledge and predisposition to unfolding events and issues in their social environment. Social studies education advocates cultural accommodation, utilization, cultural knowledge acquisition through content of instruction and patriotic need for achieving Nigeria’s national goals despite our cultural diversities. For any society to survive, its culture must be passed on to teach successive generations in such a way that the claims of the society are given priority over the wants of individuals. (Spencer-Oatey 2008)

Development of social studies in any country has a peculiar circumstances based on that country’s socio-cultural experiences. In Nigeria, among the factors that gave birth to social studies is the need for national integration and rehabilitation after the civil war (Njok and Sunday 2014).This basic fact is understood better when the national educational aims and the objectives of teaching social studies is x-rayed. According to National Policy on Education (FRN 2004) the first National Educational policy on education is the inculcation of national consciousness and national unity, economic development, international understanding and ethnic tolerance. Social studies philosophical orientations are focused towards the individual, state and nation. It was in recognition of these basic orientations that the Federal Government directed that social studies be taught as a core subject in primary, secondary and teachers training colleges as well as the universities. Nigeria as a heterogeneous society is made up of about 450 ethnic nationalities, and this Nigerians belong to different socio-cultural groups. (Njok and Sunday 2014) Socio-cultural factors are the larger scale forces within societies and culture that affects the thoughts, behaviors and feelings of individual members of those societies and cultures. Example of socio-cultural factors include language, law, aesthetics (appearance), religion, values, attitudes, social organizations, family, community a person’s role or status among others. These issues can become very important for any nation because such nation needs to target their promotions based on the socio-cultural factors that are at play. Socio-cultural theorist argues that individuals cannot be considered in isolation from their social and historical context so therefore is necessary to look at the society and the development occurring at a given time. Man’s wants are many but his needs are few. From the earliest periods of his existence, man has been searching and striving to tackle his challenges and problems in order to reach the pinnacle of his possible happiness and satisfaction, in the life of individuals, and equally those of nations, actualizing their full potentials have become daunting task. (Melody and Fibainmine 2018)

Fageyinbo (2003) postulated that human needs are in a form of hierarchy. The highest, he claimed, is Nigeria culture needs. It is the need to find self reach section and self-fulfillment of one’s potentials, however, just as it is for human needs, it can be translated to nation hood needs. It is not possible for every nation as well as very one to attain this, levels buts, it is a legitimate ultimate goal to be striven for by all sundry. Many developed countries of the world could be said to have attained a large measure of Nigeria culture, self-pride, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Nigeria as a nation, like other (development) or developing countries are poles apart from his crucial social-political milestone in a nation’s existence. To sustain the existence of this nation as a contiguous geographical entity with desirable socio-political (attitude) attributes that would make her have a large measure of pride, unity, stability, progress and overall development, there is the need for a social education.

A social education that must essentially have a comprehensive curriculum geared towards socio-political mobilization, socialization and conscientisation. This should be imparted to the generally of the citizens. An integrated problem solving social studies education approach would go a long way to improve up on the present situation in the country to be self-actualized either for an individual or nation is a life-long process and important life goal. It is a state of acknowledgement of the fulfillment of certain desirable goals. It is a summative state of fulfilled being or existence that epitomizes an achievements as defined by the corporate expectations and acceptance of other in the group on what is considered of inherit potentials of the nation for the ultimate all round development of the polity and the citizens therein.

Development, on the other hand, is an all-embracing concept that incorporates the total states of wellbeing of a nation, as individuals and collectively, in a given period of time (Fageyinbo, 2003). It is a situation of total consciousness of one’s potentials with a culturalisation of self-confident poise, self-reliant gaiety and distinct creative’s abilities for the collective use of,

and for society’s survival. However, social studies education provide for individual upliftment through some relevant and current objectives which are viable for the national development at all cost, the role of social studies education should not be handled with levity hands in all the spheres of education in life. Even, Osalusi (2014) corroborated the points above that the subject (social studies) should assist the young and old to develop a patriotic attitude towards contributing their quota toward the advancement of the nation.

Inyang –Abia Esu (2004), Njok and Sunday(2014) posited that social studies is an interdisciplinary subject which enables the learners to acquire wide knowledge of the surrounding complex phenomena and forces that influence man in his society. In line with the above definition, Edinyang and Mezieobi (2013) posits that social studies has been defined in Nigeria as an integrated field of study that probes man’s environmental relationships and imbues man with high level intellectual skills, social skills and competencies germane to solving man’s environmental diverse problems for better and effective living. Social studies is a program of study which a society uses to instill in students or learners the knowledge, skills, attitudes and actions it considers important in the relationships human beings have with each other, their world and themselves Mezieobi et al(2013). Ezegbe maintains that social studies education has a primary objective of helping to produce good citizens who are of great benefit to the Nigerian society. Njok and Sunday (2014) defines culture as a group’s program for survival in and adaptation to its environment. The cultural program consists of knowledge, concepts and values shared by group members through systems of communication.

Culture also consists of the shared beliefs, symbols and interpretations within a human group. The essence of culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of a group interpret, use, distinguish one people from another in modernized societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies (Arisi 2013). People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, artifacts and behaviour in similar ways. Learning as defined by Denga (2002:13) is a change in behavior or performance, which is as a result of experience and practice, and which makes individual face later situations differently. This change in behavior or performance should lead to observable or demonstrable improvement if learning has indeed taken place.

Isangedighi (2011) sees learning as a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of practice and experience. The desire or wish of all parents is that their children should go to school and acquire qualitative education that can equip them with skills, knowledge and good character

 that can make them competent, well-adjusted and effective citizens. The knowledge acquired can equip the children to understand and solve problems of life. Good character will make children acceptable in the society and grow in the nurture and fear of God, enjoying interpersonal relation with fellowmen wherever they find themselves (Denga and Akuto 2004). Parents, the community and nation at large expect their offspring to benefit from a positive change in behavior as a result of their exposure to teaching. Effective teaching and learning of social studies brings about development not only to the individual learner but to the society in which such an individual lives and operates. Learning in individual is a complex phenomenon that depends on a multitude of factors such as the teacher, the learner, the institutional environment among others. For learning to take place effectively, there has to be an interaction among the various factors. Through social studies education, culture is being promoted through the promotion of environmental education. Against this background Asmau (2014) expressed “man cannot be isolated from his culture, social studies education that ignores the culture of people is as irrelevant as it is deficient”. Regrettably, social studies education is not such a smooth sailing enterprise in Nigeria schools due to some socio-cultural factors at play. This study therefore, examine the influence of social studies education on a culture among Yoruba people

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It remains occurring decimal in teaching and learning process in Nigeria that adequate, efficient teachers with correct and current methodologies are scarce than how teeth. There are many lapses in Nigeria secondary schools cause by social studies teachers and curriculum such as topics emphasizing contemporary issues and de-emphasizes past events and that critical current issue and problems are not fully identified in the curriculum, such as bribery and corrupt practices like: robbery, maladministration, drug abuse, census inflation, examination malpractices, women trafficking and truancy etc.

In essence, it remains an indisputable and undeniable fact that dearth of adequate skilled social studies teachers are unavailable in many of Nigeria secondary school and even, they have no inner-instinct or latent derive in helping the country out of the national problem instead they worked for what to eat immediate not for future safety. Likewise, the major problems is that of the thoroughly Bradman power which has been the major problem that played way for other problem. Hence, the study intended to examine the effects of social studies education on a culture among Yoruba people in Nigeria.