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This article examines the level of research involvement among educational stakeholders in the process of educational policy-making and implementation in Nigeria. It attributes the transformational challenges confronting the secondary school system in Nigeria to the epistemological question: "What is the relationship between the knower or would-be knower and what can be known?" This is premised on the idea that the research process that led to the 6-3-3-4, or the "new" 9-3-4 system of education from the 6-5-2-3 system of education, did not involve the participants as co-researchers and co-subjects in their relationship. This article argues for co-operative inquiry as an alternative participatory, action research method for ameliorating these transformational challenges in the Nigerian secondary school system.

This study depicted a micropolitical analysis of school principals' decision making as regards the influence of formal and informal groups on school administrative processes from the point of view of principals. It was based on descriptive survey study of all 24 public secondary schools within Ile-Ife community, Osun State, Nigeria, out of which a sample of 10 schools was purposively selected. The instrument for data collection was an open-ended questionnaire titled "The micropolitics of school principals' decision making in Nigeria: Principals' perspective". The results showed that decisions' themes focused on improving quality of teachers and physical facilities in schools. The formal groups responsible for these decisions were principals, teachers, government officials, and parents. The informal groups were watchmen or night guards, non-governmental organizations, mass media agencies, students, and landlords. The study concluded that a complex micropolitical interaction existed in the decision-making processes of school principals due to formal and informal groups' participation, a consequent of School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) system.

Funding of academic research in Nigerian universities by Government (5 per cent recurrent grants) is a policy dictated by the National Universities Commission (NUC) as the central body for allocating research funds. This research fund, little as it is, is irregular and inadequate and to make it worse is difficult to access. These aforementioned factors have contributed to the decline in research activity as a means of attaining sustainable development in Nigeria. Thus, this article proposes a dual support system of funding academic research as follows: a devolution of the power of the NUC as the central body for administering research funds and the encouragement of another separate body such as the Education Tax Fund (ETF) to promote a healthy competitive research process and collaborative research among university research groups and individuals. These separate bodies (NUC and ETF) should be similar to the dual support system of operation, policies and procedures in the UK, where there is the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Research Councils. These bodies collaborate to build and maintain a sustainable research base in the UK. The dual support system as it is operated in the UK is very efficient in backing research in universities, because the research is supported at a marginal cost and provides a research council component of provision irrespective of geographical location.

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In Nigeria, school administrators are appointed into principalship without a well-regulated procedure or plan which may be needed for quality and effective school leadership. This educational situation calls for a policy model for appointing school principals during the selection and recruitment processes. The process for educational policy analysis model has rested majorly on generic pragmatic or rational approach and to a little extent on provision of analytic inputs through participatory policy analysis. Based on its observed flaws, this paper argues from postpositivist's perspective for a stakeholders' policy analysis model for appointing school principals in Nigeria. The argument for this policy analysis model is the persistent poor academic performance of secondary school students in external examinations which can be influenced by the quality of school leadership. Overall, the proposed model will ameliorate the influence of intervening variables associated with recurring policy implementation problem in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ife and Modakeke communities in Southwestern Nigeria have engaged in protracted communal violence. The conflict has grown and matured to the extent that it is no longer a physical battle alone. Its psychological dimension has reached the extent that both parties are in cold war. Efforts of informal social networks and formal community institutions put in place to address the conflict have not produced lasting peace. Education is an instrument of achieving social change by identifying sources of conflict and resolving them. Thus, this paper examines the intensity of the crisis, strategies to curb the violence and why these strategies have failed. It therefore proposes an integrated education premised on contact theory to resolve Ife-Modakeke conflict. It is argued that integrated school as it operates in USA, Northern Ireland, and Israel is a peace initiative. It involves educating children from communities that have suffered from prolonged communal conflict in an integrated school environment to enhance better cross-community relations. It therefore concludes that contact between communities within an educational setting would reduce intolerant attitudes and lead to better intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]