Decolonising the Curriculum of Architectural Education in Nigeria: A Case of Negotiated Pedagogy

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the extent to which negotiated pedagogy as a decolonised pedagogy that calls for more social forms of learning is capable of enabling students to acquire skills for future practice in Nigeria. The curriculum of architectural education in Nigeria has been predicated on the British and American pedagogic learning models. These models do not reflect the diverse cultural practices and rarely enable students to acquire and develop capabilities to self-initiate projects and create jobs without waiting for commissions. The study utilised critical review of existing literature to expose the weaknesses of the current studio models in enabling students and future architects to acquire skills for future practice. The paper employed interview and case study to examine how negotiated pedagogies at the margins are opening up new ways of engaging in practice. The findings reveal that negotiated pedagogy challenges the orthodoxy of existing studio models by empowering today’s graduating architecture students to develop a critical voice to question how their learning is equipping them for practice. By negotiating and integrating multiple approaches to learning and producing architecture, the line between education and practice, architects and users, educators and students and real and imagined is redrawn.