Social Studies Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes on Teachers’ Development and Administrative Decisions of Primary Schools in Oyo State of Nigeria

Most Nigerians are characterized with non-conformity with democratic principle that
would have brought desired transformation in the country. This study, therefore, examines social studies teachers’ willingness, knowledge, skills and attitudes to participate in personnel, curriculum and instruction, staff development and general administrative decisions. 124 teachers and 15 head teachers were randomly selected from schools in the local government areas namely Ibarapa East, Ibarapa Central and Ibarapa North of Oyo State. Two instruments used to collect data were unstructured interviewed and a close and open ended questionnaire that asked respondents to indicate their actual and desired participation in each of management and administrative activities on a like t-type scale. Data collected were analyzed using t-test. The response rate to the survey was 82.4% for teachers and 94% for head teachers. Findings revealed that the comments by the teachers are a representation of the views in relation to the practice of participatory decision making in our primary schools. It was also revealed that teachers would like to be more involved in administrative and decision making more than is currently the case through groups learning of the cooperative structure acquired in the teaching and learning of social studies. The study concluded that knowledge, skills and attitudes gained through effective teaching and learning of social studies could promote administrative and management decisions among primary school teachers in Nigeria.