Curriculum implementation in teacher education institutions for attainment of 2030 sustainable development goals: teacher-educators’ views

Abstract

Nigeria’s drive to deliver democratic dividends; improve the lives of her citizenry by fighting inequality, injustice, corruption; promote peace; and tackle climate change by 2030 remains apt and the matters require urgent attention. Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG4, which is “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all”, appears to be the hub around which the other SDGs revolve. The curriculum process is the major source through which the SDGs framework which has five key themes: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships, will be realised. The curriculum implementation process for the attainment of the SDGs involves needs analysis, selection of objectives, designing appropriate content, selecting learning experiences, organisation and evaluation of the learning experiences. Teaching the curriculum process requires sufficient knowledge by teachers and the application of the curriculum process to global issues such as the SDGs. This  paper examined teacher educators’ views on the use of curriculum process in teaching for the attainment of the SDGs through curriculum implementation process. Five research questions guided the study. A qualitative analysis was used to elicit information from the teacher-educators using three open ended interview questions. A purposive sampling technique was used to select one hundred and eighty (180) teacher-educators from teacher education institutions in the South-East. A 31-item structured questionnaire on four-point Likert scale was used for data collection, while simple mean was used for the data analysis. The result of the study showed that the teachers were of the view that for the SDGs to be attained it must use the curriculum process. The study further revealed that poor application of the curriculum process was a major pitfall preventing the realisation of the national objectives. The teachers, in addition to other things, noted that 15 years is too short a period of time to realise the SDGs. The findings have implications for the attainment of the SDGs by the year 2030. Suggestions were proffered on the need for the government to see the attainment of the SDGs as a policy issue and provide the necessary enablement for schools to facilitate the attainment of the SDGs by 2030.

Keywords: Sustainable development goals, Curriculum implementation, Curriculum process, Inclusive education