Teaching self-reliance and empowerment in civics classrooms: Towards a sociopolitical capabilities approach

This paper considers whether self-reliance and empowerment discourses within Nigerian civic education are sufficient to actualise civic education aims of promoting freedom, human agency, and active citizenship. Drawing on qualitative data, it analysed the representations of self-reliance and youth empowerment concepts in civic education curriculum and prescribed textbooks for secondary schools, along with six civics teachers’ understanding and classroom implementation of these concepts. Findings show that economic-centric/neoliberal perspective dominates the framing of these concepts within civic education. This dominant perspective is driven by how self-reliance is framed in Nigeria's education policy. Relying on human capability and sociopolitical development models, the paper argues that the neoliberal perspective framing of self-reliance and empowerment undermines actualising the goals of civic education: to empower citizens for civic agency and sociopolitical actions that challenge systemic issues, such as inequality and corruption, which perpetuate social injustices like unemployment and poverty targeted by economic empowerment. Noting an increase in poverty and unemployment targeted by human capital approaches, the paper recommends a shift towards sociopolitical capabilities-informed perspective on self-reliance and empowerment in civic education. This, it argues, will complement the economic-centric perspectives emphasised in vocational subjects and foster holistic human flourishing.