Socio-Cultural Competence: Why Theatre(-in-) Education is Important for Every Post-colonial Nigerian Child

Educational policies and curricula have integrated indigenous languages, culture, and arts for decolonising Nigeria’s formal education system. Yet, poor implementation of the practical aspect, due to ineffective pedagogical strategies, have always resulted in persistent deficiencies in socio-cultural competence among school children. Therefore, this review article is aimed at positioning theatre(-in-) education as an effective pedagogy that can potentially develop the socio-cultural competence of school children in post-colonial Nigeria. A dual-method of literature review is adopted – traditional for conceptual grounding and systematic for empirical validation through analysis and synthesis of 11 relevant peer-reviewed studies published between 2004 and 2024. The findings established that theatre offers both cognitive and affective learning benefits to students by promoting mimetic creation, dissemination and deepening of their socio-cultural knowledge and appreciation of their ‘‘self’’ towards the acceptance of ‘‘the other’’. This is argued as the major crux of socio-cultural competence that theatre(-in-) education offers. The argument therefore has implications for the decolonisation of education and culture and the promotion of culturally responsive pedagogy in Nigeria. Educational policies and practices as well as school curricula in Nigeria should be innovated and necessary resources should be provided to accommodate (practical) theatre as a school subject.