Indoctrinating as Process of Inculcating Virtues in the Early Childhood Care Development Education (ECCDE) Learner in Modern-Day Nigeria

Abstract The deviation from the ideals of ECCDE advocates and Nigerian educational policy were the things that prompted the authors to ask if indoctrination is a proper option for educating the Nigerian ECCDE learner. The view that indoctrination, as one of the processes of educating, is defective on ground of lack of consideration for the learner’s ability to think and exercise their minds calls for serious attention, particularly when the ECCDE learner is exposed to serious academic work and less recognition is given to play and cultivation of rational autonomy. The caregiver sees themselves as the alter ego of the class, instead of a guide or facilitator. The main question of this paper is, Is indoctrinating a better approach in inculcating virtues in the ECCDE learner? Attempting to answer this question and other issues, the authors employ existential phenomenological approach to examine indoctrinating as a process of teaching virtue, the meaning and nature of ECCDE, and approaches to teaching virtues. The importance and implications of this paper is that authentic life style is a correlate of independent life in a country struggling for the attainment of democratic rule. It was therefore concluded that an authentic faith would lead to the preservation of the learner’s desirable values because rational autonomy is a presupposition of an authentic life style. Even though indoctrination may not give the learner any opportunity to think for themselves, it is how virtue is taught that determines whether it is indoctrinative or non-indoctrinative. Against this view, it was suggested that indoctrinating should be used with caution.