HISTORICAL-PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Historical and philosophical issues, amidst modern approaches continue to play-out fundamentally and at the same time pose serious challenge to the development of business education in Nigeria. This study determined: the extent of relationship between historical issues and philosophical issues and how modern approaches to business education predicts the development of the programme. The study answered three research questions and tested three null hypotheses. This study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The study was carried out in Nigeria. The population of the study was 540 comprising 400 professional business educators and 140 other professionals in the larger society. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 299 comprising 196 business educators and 103 professionals from the larger society. The researcher-made questionnaire duly validated and reliability-tested, tagged, “Historical-Philosophical Issues and the Development of Business Education Questionnaire (HPIDBEQ)” generated data for the study. Data was analysed using Linear Regression Analysis (LRA). Findings are that: Historical and philosophical issues significantly relate to the developmentof business education in Nigeria; and modern approaches significantly predict the development of business education with a high predictive value. It was concluded that historical and philosophical issues are relevant to the development of business education based on the reality of the time. It was further concluded that modern approaches in business education delivery are vital to its development. It is recommended that business educators should develop convincing history of business education to reconcilethe poor public perception that the programme was developed for school drop-outs; business educators should constantly review the philosophy of business education to reflect the reality of the time; business educators should ensure that more researches are conducted to develop more practical and modern approaches for business education delivery.