Abstract
The survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted in Abia State. The population of the study comprised of 20 Economics Educators. This included 8 Economics educators in two public Universities in the state and 12 in one state owned College of Education in the state. The entire population was used for the study. Structured questionnaire with 18 items titled, ‘perception of Economics educators on the nature of Economics education’ was used to elicit responses from the respondents for the study. The questionnaire was grouped into four clusters that addressed educators’ perceptions on the: pure science nature; social science nature; and humanities nature of Economics Education. Four response options of Very High Extent (VHE) – 4 points, High Extent (HE) – 3 points, and Low Extent (LE) – point, Very Low Extent (VLE) were used. The instrument was subjected to face-validation by three experts, one from Measurement and Evaluation and two from Economics education all from University of Uyo, Akwa -Ibom state. A reliability coefficient of 0.78 internal consistency was obtained using Cronbach Alpha’s technique. The questionnaire was administered to the respondents by the researchers. The mean and standard deviation were used to answer the three research questions, while the independent t-test was used to test the three null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The interpretation on the extent of perception of Economics educators was determined using real limit of numbers as follow: Very High Extent (VHE) 3.50 – 4.00, High Extent (HE) 2.50 – 3.49 and Low Extent (LE) 1.50 – 2.49, Very Low Extent (VLE) 0.50-1.49. The real limit was applied to research questions. Conversely, the null hypotheses were accepted at the expense of Ha when t-cal. was greater than 0.05 alpha level, otherwise HO was rejected.
The findings of the study revealed that Economics educators perceived Economics Education as a social science course to a very high extent but as a pure science and humanities to low and very low extent respectively. Based on these findings, it was recommended among other things that Economics Educators Association of Nigeria
(EEAN) should thrive awareness campaign on Economics Education as a social science among Economics Educators and scholars in the larger society.
Ede, M. O. & Kingsley A (2021)