CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Socialstudies education has been given a prominent place as a core subject in juniorsecondary schools in Nigeria. The subject was introduced in 1982. Theimportance of social studies cannot be over-emphasized. This is because thelearning of social studies equips learners with functional knowledge,attitudes, skills, and values. The functional knowledge, attitude, skills, andvalues which social studies offers could have been the reason the FederalGovernment of Nigeria made the subject compulsory.

            Social studies content ofinstruction is society focused. The curriculum is integrated and thecomposition of the content is derived from various sources. The sources are:the social sciences, humanities and physical sciences (Nwanyanwu, 2005). Thecomponents of social studies curriculum is organized to address the problems ofman and to equip the learner with realistic skills, knowledge, values andattitude to be responsive and responsible to environmental problems andchallenges. The learners are further equipped with desirable values andattitudes capable of strengthening national unity, co-operation, tolerance, andnational consciousness. Through right attitudes and values, learners willappreciate the fact that Nigeria as a multi-ethnic society requires peace andaccommodation of one another (ethnic and religious group notwithstanding) inorder to achieve effective nation building (Mezieobi, 2013). These lofty idealsand objectives of social studies cannot be achieved if the social studies learnershave no genuine interest in subject.

Ahmed(2009) explains that, the first and crucial step towards effective realizationof subject curriculum objectives (social studies inclusive) is the ability ofthe students to study such subject with interest. This explanation, perhaps,shows why Abdullahi (2010) remarks that the extent to which social studiescurriculum objectives are achieved depends on the extent to which socialstudies students read, study and understand social studies curriculum contents.The above statement was borne out of the fact that social studies curriculumcontent is organized sequentially, such that effective reading with interest ofthe initial content of the social studies curriculum will facilitate effectivereading of the subsequent contents.

However,the major worry of this study is that research evidence from several scholarssuch as Suleman (2009), Ahmed (2009), Bello (2011), Mohammed (2011) among otherproved that students decline in their general performance in social studies.Interest, according to Adam (2010), means attention to something. In thiscontext, interest means attention to studying of social studies. Furthermore,Adeleye (2011) views interest as the curiosity to do something. In the contextof this study interest means the curiosity to study relevant social studiesmaterials. The application of curiosity in studying social studies by studentscould enhance their performance in junior secondary school social studies.

Success, in an educational institution, is measured byacademic performance of students. Over the years, the importance of studentsdoing well in school has become the common concern of parent, legislators,teachers, counselors, psychologist and other stakeholders. According to Bello(2002), parents devote a lot of resources to their children’s education becausethey believe that student’s interest in education and by implication goodacademic performance will provide a stable future for them. However, students’interest in academic activities both in schools and homes has been on thedecline. Wilkins (2001) opined that many educational authorities have sought tofind out reasons for the downward trend in interest of secondary schoolstudents in educational activities. Uwaifo (2008) attributed the cause of lowinterest of children in educational activities to a combination of personal andinstitutional factors. The personal factors include the level of individual’s aspiration,intelligence, knowledge and ability, while institutional factors are family orparental influence.

Family,according to Akubue (2006), is defined as a group of persons united by ties ofmarriage, blood or adoption, constituting a single household, interacting witheach other in their respective social roles as husband and wife, father andmother, brother and sister and creating a common culture. Family is alsodefined as a single social unit in human society which is extricably interwovenwith all other system (Agulana, 2009). Whatever the short comings the abovedefinitions may have, family is universally and culturally accepted as a socialinstitution throughout the world. It is also recognized as the bedrock of anysociety responsible for primary socialization of its members. In support of theabove, Robboy (2010) states categorically that everyone knows a great dealabout families because all human beings were probably socialized by parents andteachers.

According to Olayinka (2004), family, especially stablefamily, is the bed rock of any society. Obayan (2004) reported that a stableand well developed childhood can be guaranteed by a stable family. Kilgore,Snyder, & Lentz (2000) claimed that the family environment is the mostpowerful influence in determining a child’s academic achievement. It is obviousthat families have substantial influence on a child’s academic performance inschool subjects including social studies. Could the kind of occupation theparents do as well as the degree of stability of the family be factors infamily influence on students’ interest in academic activities? Moreover, how dogender and location, as moderator variables, interact with parental occupationand family stability to influence students’ interest in social studies?

Gender,according to Robert (2007), is a social construct which is not biologicallydetermined but a concept equivalent to race or class. Lee (2001) noted thatgender is an ascribed attribute that differentiate feminine from masculine inthe society. Gender is by this attribute seen as the categorization in theworld of matter into sex. Offorma (2004) viewed gender as a learned sociallyconstructed condition ascribed to male and female. Offorma further noted thatgender is enforced through cultural practices, as gender identity is the outcomeof cultural learning; hence the expectations from male and female are dependenton their cultural milieus. In the context of this study, gender is a culturalconstruction that assigns roles, attitudes and values considered appropriatefor each sex. Indeed, these cultural roles assigned to male and female couldhave interactive influence on parental occupation and family stability asfactors of students’ interest in social studies.  Usman (2009) found out in a study that thefemale students are more affected in their academic achievement by familyinstability. On the contrary, Danladi (2010) found out in a study that familystatus affects both male and female students’ academic performance. Gender isan important variable in this study because male and female children reactdifferently to family instability. In support of this statement, Anderson(2013) explains that while the male children can cope with family statuswithminimal stress, the female children find it difficult to move on in an unstablefamily. Thus, this study seeks to determine among other things the influence ofparental occupation and family stability on students’ interest in juniorsecondary social studies in terms of gender.

Locationis another variable which the study seeks to determine its place in theinfluence of parental occupation and family stability on students’ interest insocial studies. Location is a place where somebody or something resides in theworld. Oguniyi (2008) noted that location can also mean a settlement whether avillage, town or city usually by human beings. Benton (2000) also describedlocation as a geographical place or an area. Contextually, location in thisstudy implies a geographical place or area where something or somebody issituated, be it rural or urban area. Location is also an important variable inthis study because the place of residence of the children, that is urban orrural area, could influence the way reacts to family instability. In support ofthis statement, Onoja (2014) reported that while the urban children easilyadapt to the cases of family instability, the rural children are seriousaffected emotionally and psychologically. Therefore, this study seeks to determineif location is a variable of influence in parental occupation and familystability as determinants of students’ interest in social studies.

            Indeed, studies as the present oneis important especially in Jigawa State to enable education stakeholders planeffectively on the ways to reduce the influence which family status could haveon students’ interest in academic activities. In Jigawa state, researchevidence abounds on the increasing rate of family status as a result ofdominant polygamous family system (Danladi, 2010). On the other hand, theincreasing rate of unemployment in Nigeria which compelled most parents to beunder employed could have influence on students’ interest in school subjectsincluding social studies. The reason for the concern in social studies is thatthe subject deals with man in the society. Thus, it contains reasonablecontents that discuss the family since she is regarded as the basic unit of thesociety (Mohammed, 2011). Therefore, students from unstable family may loseinterest in social studies once the contents on family issues are taught in theclassroom. Furthermore, considering the location of Jigawa State in the core NorthernNigeria where peace and national consciousness is required, effective learningof social studies with interest by the students becomes necessary. However, themajor worry is that inspite of the importance of social studies in trainingresponsible citizens, not much has been done to find out the influence ofparental occupation and family stability on students’ interest in juniorsecondary school social studies in Jigawa State. It is against this backgroundthat the present study seeks to determine the influence of parental occupationand family stability on students’ interest in social studies in juniorsecondary schools in Jigawa State.