Influence of Teacher's Characteristics on Civic Education Implementation in Nigeria

There is evidence of dissatisfaction of millennials with democracy and rising populist support for non-democratic forms of governance and nationalism among them. This presents challenges for civic education implementation and calls for promotion of constructivist civic teachers. Motivated by the need to apply deep civic education in inhibiting non-democratic beliefs and promoting viable strong democracy through active citizens, the present study employed a descriptive survey to investigate the influence of teacher's gender and educational background on teacher's implementation of civic education using data collected from randomly selected 16 secondary school civic education teachers and 320 secondary school students comprising 20 students of each teacher participating in the study. Two instruments were used for data collection on teachers’ initial and continuous training in civic education, and teachers’ implementation of civic education. Two research questions answered using mean and standard deviation, and three null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance using correlation, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis H Test guided the study. The findings showed that a high number of civic teachers did not receive prior training in civic education as well as do not engage in lifelong learning or continuous training in civic education and teaching practice. Civic teachers do not also actively engage students in civic instructions. A positive relationship exists between teacher’s training in civic education and teacher’s implementation of civic education. While civic teachers’ educational background did significantly influence implementation of civic education, gender did not. The findings were associated to a number of factors including lack of cognition of the power of civic education in constructing, reconstructing and transforming (dys)functional societal ideologies. Promotion of lifelong learning among teachers, training of teachers in civic contents and methods, and utilization of ICT for instructional purposes were recommended.


Introduction
Citizenship connotes not only membership in a given state, but also corresponding rights and duties of citizens. Citizens can be effective or non-effective depending on performance or nonperformance of ascribed constitutional duties and obligations (Mofoluwawo & Oyelade 2012) and non-constitutional duties directed at actualizing social justice. Effective (good) citizens are classified into three namely personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented citizens (see Westheimer & Kahne, 2004;Kılınc & Tarman, 2018) where personally responsible citizens religiously abide by the values of the land, participatory citizens move beyond abiding by the values to mobilizing for collective enforcement of the values, and justice oriented citizens critically assess institutional structures for social inequalities and then take actions for social change and social justice . Another type of good citizen that requires recognition in global and digital age is humanist oriented citizen, that is, one who greatly values life, nature and security and hence, refrain from applying legal, biological, nuclear, chemical, biochemical and technological knowledge in causing overt or covert destructions of life, nature and properties or committing cybercrimes, but apply them for the betterment of life and nature. Sadly, production of personally responsible citizens which do not promote strong democracy is commonly and exclusively emphasized in civic curriculum content and practice of most States (Westheimer, 2019;Westheimer & Kahne, 2004;Torney-Purta, et al., 1999). Effective citizenship can, however, be fostered and promoted through critical education, deep civic education specifically.
Civic education [CE] is a political and directional instrument employed by governments in shaping the character, thinking and actions of their citizens: it is deep when it presents rich and multiple convergent and divergent contents (economic, social, political, civil, historical, and technological contents of relative and universal contexts) in comparative approaches that allow for interpretations, perspectives, attitudes and actions that transcend self, sectional and immediate societal interests to incorporate 'others' and future needs and interest. It is according to Sears and Hughes (2006) a topical issue worldwide and many countries have made initiatives to introduce it in schools. Nigeria identifies with this initiative: although CE was introduced in Colleges of Education curriculum as a major subject in 1990 (Alutu & Ifedili, 2012), it became a core subject separate from social studies at primary and secondary levels of education in Nigeria in 2009 sequel to its development by the National Technical committee on Civil Education (NTCCE) in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) on the order of the Presidential Forum on Education (see Egwu, 2009). It is introduced in Nigeria to address the root causes (corruption, poor attitude to work, lack of contentment, dishonesty, ethnicity, lack of social cohesion, etc.) of Nigeria's social, nation-building and developmental challenges. It is taught at all levels of pre-higher education as compulsory subject both at entrance and exit examinations (e.g. West African Senior School Certificate Examination) mainly to promote national consciousness, deepen and reinforce democracy and democratic culture in Nigeria.
However, Nigerian civic education curriculum suffers the same problem that behoves the civic curriculum of some other States: it emphasizes mostly assimilationist and liberal contents, and the production of personally responsible citizens. Yet, powerful, critical and asentimental implementation strategies can be advanced to produce participatory and justice oriented citizens most required to transition emerging and weak democracies, and even fixated consolidated democracies (ones that are regressive, dissatisfactory and frustrating to their citizens as a result of declining freedom, rule of law and institutional performance orchestrated by high clientelism, abuse of power and low government accountability; see, Westheimer, 2019;Pharr & Putnam, 2018;Banks, 2017;Foa & Mounk, 2016;Fukuyama, 2015;Diamond, 2015 for reports on democratic recession and rise of non-democratic and nationalist thinking among millennials) into viable strong democracies. A viable democracy is one that is lively and wellfunctioning reflecting effectively the principles of democracy and is satisfactory to and endorsed by the citizens.
Coupled with democratic recession and rise in populist support for non-democratic form of governance among millennials even in Nigeria as is gleaned from their discussions including posts and comments on social medias such as Facebook and Twitter, civic attitude and engagement -the major pursuit of CE has been generally low in Nigeria . Poor achievement of civic goals or decline in exhibition of characteristics of citizenship as evidenced in indiscipline, unpatriotism, national disintegration and underdevelopment, etc. (see Falade & Adeyemi, 2015;Ityonzughul et al. 2014;Iyamu & Obionu, 2005) have been linked to instructional implementation of civic goals (see Okam & Lawal, 2011;Finkel & Ernst, 2005;Kahne, David & Lee, 2013;Levinson, 2014a;Reimers et al., 2014). This established correlation between poor civic goals achievement and instructional implementation raises the need for investigation of factors such as gender and educational background of civic teachers that could influence civic education instructional implementation with a view of promoting critical civic education -one that brings into spotlight inclusive, participatory and justice oriented strategies-through practical and feasible recommendations. This study therefore aims at investigating the correlation between civic teacher's characteristics and teacher's implementation of civic education curriculum in Nigeria.

Theoretical Framework
Effective implementation of civic instruction involves critical understanding of powerful pedagogies, the taxonomy of learning outcomes, specific learning conditions required for the attainment of each outcome, Gagne's (1985) nine events of instruction, and knowledge of the subject matter. Knowledge is important for practice and can be gained through training and experience. This study is therefore shaped by the theory of knowledge or epistemology. This theory encapsulates everything about knowing -what can be known, how it can be known, the scope of the knowing, the validity of the known and the metacognition of the knowing. Philosophers including Plato, St. Augustine, David Hume and Immanuel Kant expounded how knowledge can be formed and the problems with formed knowledge. Their propositions about how knowledge is formed explicate idealism, rationalism and empiricism sanctioning correspondency, coherency, and pragmatism respectively. Bodner (1986) explained the traditional and constructivist view of knowledge. Critiquing the traditional view which underlying principle is that a real world exists irrespective of whether we believe it or not (i.e. only one reality exists irrespective of differences) Bodner argued that it leads to an iconic understanding of knowledge where our mental schemes correspond to reality as though the schemes were prototypes of reality. This certainly limits one's ability to question concepts, reflect on one's own ideas, examine the factuality of 'facts', explore new ideas and approaches to solving problems. In other words, traditional view of knowledge is antithetical to change and reflexive practices and therefore dangerous for teachers to rely solely on it.
Constructivist view of knowledge championed by philosophers including Piaget, Vygotsky, and John Dewey involves structuring, restructuring and reorganization of knowledge, and is based on the assumption that knowledge is built in the mind of the learner i.e. each learner is original in his ideas and realities. This approach seems potent for creating chaos and thus, presents the challenge of promoting uniformity and serenity of knowledge and actions where reasonable and practicable. Clearing the misconceptions and harmonizing the differing ideas require cooperative methods that allow people test their knowledge, accept valid and workable ones tested for reliability, and then integrate them into a valid whole or complex knowledge viable for that context and time. This promotes tolerance and cooperation advocated as imperative for present time (e.g. Noddings, 2012).
Relating this theory to teaching, constructivist civic teachers -who move beyond the contents of textbooks and curriculum in their instructions to considering the needs of their learners in specific contexts in relation to societal needs through practical knowledge, engaging pedagogies and reflexive practices-are important because civic education must fit the realities of specific context and time if it is to be effective and practical. Keeping track with the realities of a subject and the context and time within which it is taught require deep and continuous training in and reflection on that subject as well as understanding of the implications of social dynamics on the content and practice of that subject. Therefore, this study by investigating the influence of teachers' civic training on implementation of civic education hopes to infer from findings civic teachers' level of knowledge (including methodological knowledge) of the subject and suggest ways of improving civic education implementation through knowledgeable and constructivist teachers.

Conceptual and Empirical Framework
Civic education is broad and can cover solely the specific rights and duties of every member of a political system but usually used more capaciously to indicate the knowledge, skills and attitudes that children are expected to learn to be virtuous and civically productive members of society (Levinson, 2014b;Margaret, 2000). Civic education in most States both democratic and non-democratic largely serve the role of indoctrinating the citizens to the values and rules of the state. This is evidenced in civic curricular of most countries (see Torney-Purta et al., 1999) which according to Cox, Jaramillo, & Reimers (2005) is structured along three components namely civic knowledge (knowledge of basic concepts of democracy and its institutions, individual and collective rights, nature of volunteer and political action, etc.), civic skills or abilities (critical reasoning, interpreting public information, cooperation), and civic attitude (appreciation of democratic system and its practices and institutions, valuing of human dignity and equality, etc.).
A number of western scholars have described the scope and goals of civic education to transcend producing personally responsible citizens to that of transformative and justiceoriented citizens (e.g Westheimer & Kahn, 2004;Banks, 2008;Wheeler-Bell, 2012;Banks, 2017;Westheimer, 2019). Their understanding possibly is grounded on the need for citizens who advance the state forward through critical critics of existing systems and taking actions beyond stipulated rules to change unjust system: less is not expected of advanced democracies.
Nigerian scholars, on the other hand, still share the perspective that civic education is geared towards the production of selfless, responsible and patriotic citizens who obey the rules and regulations guiding the civil society by exercising their rights and duties (e.g. Ogundare, 2002;Falade, 2008;Falade & Adeyemi, 2015). The understanding of Nigerian scholars sanctions indoctrination of citizens through liberal civic education. The focus of Iyamu and Obionu (2005) study on raising youths' awareness of desirable values and civic responsibility through a holiday citizenship education programme further illustrates attention on promoting personallyresponsible citizens even through informal settings. The reason for this perception is not farfetched: the content of Nigerian civic education is liberal and the textbooks used for its implementation suffer what Freire (1993) dubbed "narration sickness" in terms of teachingin relation to writing, I take it to mean written contents that limit students ability to only factual knowledge i.e. they are largely descriptive or enumerative and tell students the facts without engaging or raising their critical, inquisitive, reflective, reflexive and action minds or abilities. Nigeria's democracy is also very weak and battles a lot of issues like interpersonal violations of human rights, poor attitude to work, extortion and bribery, corruption, and varying conflicts alongside government's violation of its citizens' rights. This array of issues appears to make the production of personally responsible citizens more critical, the reason it is being emphasized by Nigerian scholars. This delimiting conception, however, runs the risk of uncritical implementation of the subject by teachers, not advancing and sustaining critically powerful engagement among citizens, and perpetuating injustice and weak democracy through uninformed obedient citizenry or destructive disobedient citizenry.
Teachers are believed to be agents of change and social justice (e.g. Pantic & Florian, 2015) and more important than materials for curriculum implementation (Banks, 1988cited in Hammerness et al., 2005. They could therefore adopt critical pedagogies in implementing doctrinal contents provocatively thereby raising students' critical consciousness and empowering them with patriotic, participatory and justice-oriented skills. Supportively, a number of studies have found teachers' characteristics and teaching pedagogies enacted to influence achievement of civic education goals (e.g. Hahn, 1999;Finkel & Ernst, 2005;Kahne et al., 2013;Hart & Wandeler, 2018). Finkel and Ernst (2005) found that the kind of pedagogical methods employed by civic instructors register different students' gains in democratic knowledge, values and skills. They found that while students taught with a high degree of active, participatory instructional methods showed significant gains on virtually all of the democratic orientations (knowledge, values, and skills) examined, students taught by instructors of highly perceived competence, likeability, interest and knowledge showed more significant gain in democratic values and skills. In a multi-national study, Hahn (1999) found that young people (ages 15-17) appear to be more interested in the political arena in contexts in which civic education includes political context and opportunities for students to explore and express opinions on public policy issues, and to engage in decision-making than in those contexts in which they do not have such experiences. Similarly, Kahne et al. (2013) in their California and Chicago study of sampled high school students' found open discussion and service learning to promote participatory citizenship (which in the context of their study was a hybrid of expressive and youth centred action and volunteering activity on the one hand and interest in politics, interest in diverse perspectives, and interest to vote on the other hand) in both samples than civic education did. Some of these methodologies implicated as effective including dramatization, discussion method, debates, use of resource persons, analytical essay and group work or cooperative learning are recommended by NERDC (2012) for teaching and learning civic education in Nigeria.
Civic education emphasizes to great degree seemingly controversial concepts like democracy, political participation, human rights, etc., and gender has been implicated as influencing the nature or volume of these civic education defining concepts in different contexts and directions. For example, women are consistently found to participate less in politics (e.g. Cicognania, et al., 2011;Agbalajobi, 2010;Hooghe, & Stolle, 2004). Thus, it is logical to anticipate that female teachers may not be too active or practical in discussing civic contents with their students as would male teachers. Also, the importance of knowledge and competence in civic education has been noted as prominent in promoting effective implementation of the subject (Ali, Hayatu & Badau, 2015) and attainment of civic education goals. Falade and Falade (2013) in their study of teachers' competence in teaching civic education in Southwestern Nigeria found that majority of the sampled teachers do not possess civic knowledge required to effectively teach civic education in their classes. Their finding is similar to that of Wing (2009) which found primary school teachers in Hong Kong to possess insufficient understanding of moral and civic education. Falade and Falade's findings suggest the need to investigate the source of civic teachers' lack of knowledge. The present study therefore, unlike previous ones which considered only teachers' knowledge and understanding of the traditional subject matter, investigated teachers' training in civic education and continuous learning of civic contents and practices through conferences and electronic media as well as implementation of civic education by civic teachers (i.e. whether students are actively engaged in classroom activities). The study uniquely added to civic education literature the relationship between teachers' gender and educational background, and teachers' civic education implementation. More hypothetically, this study sought to ascertain teacher's characteristics (specifically gender and educational background) influencing teacher's implementation of civic education in Nigeria.

Statement of the Problem
Poor performance of students in civic education in Nigeria and recent poor engagement of Nigerian citizens in civic activities such as voting, community volunteering like volunteering in vigilante, environmental and water maintenance services question the effectiveness of civic education in realizing its goals which are increasing civic life and social capital -"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trust to which those networks give rise" (Sander & Putnam, 2010, P. 9), producing effective and patriotic citizens, and promotion of justice and democracy among other aims. The increasing rate of civil unrest and high rate of youth irresponsibility and criminality such as fraud, rape of women including infants even inside school environments, armed robbery in street roads both during the day and night, burglary, assaults, etc. in Nsukka, Enugu State and beyond which civic education aims to prevent raises the need to investigate how teachers implement the subject. This investigation is necessary because implementation of instruction is implicated in learning outcomes which is inclusive of behavioural outcome. The present study, therefore, is conceived to investigate the implementation of civic education and teachers' characteristics influencing the implementation of the subject in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria. The findings are anticipated to lead insight into possible actions that could promote students' performance in civic education as well as reduced (or eliminate) social problems sought to be tackled through civic education.

Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study; 1) How trained or learned in civic education are civic teachers? This question investigates civic teachers' initial and continuous training in civic education. It is important to investigate this since teachers' certification in subject area is found to influence students' achievement in that subject (see Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000). 2) How do civic teachers implement civic education instructions? This question seeks answer into the methodologies and strategies adopted by civic teachers for civic instructions. This is also important to investigate as some methodologies are held more powerful in achieving civic goals (see Kahne et al., 2013).

Research Hypotheses
The null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. HO1: There is no correlation between teachers' civic training and students' reported teachers' implementation of civic education. HO2: Gender has no significant influence on students' reported teachers' implementation of civic education. HO3: Educational background has no significant influence on students' reported teachers' implementation of civic education.

Method
The design of the study was a descriptive survey. A descriptive survey gathers data at a specific time and report the nature of existing conditions as explained by the collected data at that time (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, , 2011). The rationale for choosing this method is that the study is aimed at ascertaining and describing the relationship between secondary school civic teachers' characteristics (gender and educational background) and implementation of civic education as gathered from the collected data.

Sample
The study was carried out in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu state, Nigeria. Thirty-one public schools are located in this area (PPSMB, 2018). Simple random sampling technique was used to draw eight schools out of the 31 public secondary schools. The participants of the study comprised of 16 civic education teachers (2 from each school) and 320 secondary school civic education students (40 from each school) randomly sampled from the eight schools. The profile of sampled teachers is reported in Table 1. More clearly, 20 students are drawn from each participating teacher's class to respond to that teacher's implementation of civic education so as to effectively compare the teacher's gender and educational background to the students' reported teachers' implementation of civic education. The choice of using students' reported responses to investigate teachers' implementation of civic education is to eliminate cases of self report bias by teachers. Worth noting is that it was decided forehand to randomly sample 20 students from each teacher's class to fill the questionnaire.

Instrument
Two questionnaires developed by the researcher, one for teachers and another for students, were used for data collection. The teachers' questionnaire entitled, "Civic Education Teacher' Trainings and Employment of ICT for Enrichment of Civic Instructions" consisted of two parts: A and B. Part A contained instructions and sought information on teachers' gender and discipline or course of study in higher institution (defined in this study as educational background) while Part B contained 5 items on teachers training on civic education, continuous learning in Civic Education and employment of ICT facilities for enrichment of civic contents. The students' questionnaire entitled "Civic Education Teachers' Engagement of Students in Civic Instruction" comprised of two parts: A and B. Part A contained instructions on how to fill the questionnaire while Part B contained 9 items (these items were considered appropriate for this query because previous studies showed practices reflected in the items as either effective or non-effective in realizing the goals of civic instructions) sought to ascertain teachers' implementation of civic education such as use of inclusive and experiential methods to actively engage students in civic instruction. The instruments were rated on a four-point scale of Strongly Agree (SA) 4; Agree (A) 3; Disagree (D) 2; Strongly Disagree (SD) 1.

Validation and Reliability of the Instrument
The instruments were validated by three higher education experts, one in social studies education, curriculum studies, and measurement and evaluation respectively, and two secondary school civic teachers with 7-years post teaching experience. Teachers' instrument and students' instrument were then trial tested on 5 teachers and 20 students respectively in a school located outside Nsukka L.G.A. and the reliability was measured using Cronbach Alpha which yielded an alpha of .86 and .82 respectively indicating high level of internal consistency of each construct's items and thus, an acceptable level of internal reliability (Field, 2013).

Data Collection and Analysis
Copies of the questionnaires were administered on sampled civic education teachers and students of selected schools with their informed consent. The researcher supervised the filling and ensured that teachers and students appropriately filled the instruments. Mean and standard deviation were used in analysing responses to the research questions. Although de Winter (2013) in his simulation study proved that analyzing data collected from small and unequal sample sizes with t-test raises no objection insofar as the data met the assumption of equal variance and has large effect size, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, Mann-Whitney Test (the equivalent of independent sample t-test) and Kruskal-Wallis H Test (the equivalent of One-way ANOVA) were used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance since the study data met their assumptions and violated only normality test. A teacher's civic training and employment of ICT for civic instruction or implementation of civic education is rated high were the mean score is 2.50 and above or low were the mean score is below 2.50.

Analysis of teachers' civic training and employment of ICT for civic instruction:
The mean score of teachers' responses on the only item that sought to ascertain if teachers had prior training in civic education was used to determine if teachers are trained in civic education or not: this is also used to infer their knowledge of civic education since studies have shown that teachers' with standard certification in a subject significantly impact students' achievement than do teachers without certification in that subject (e.g. Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000). The mean score of teachers' responses on the only item about teachers' attendance of conferences, workshops, and reading of civic education journal articles or scholarly books was used to determine if civic teachers do engage in lifelong learning. The mean score of teachers' responses to three questions based on use of ICT facilities to explore civic materials were used to determine if civic teachers employ ICT facilities in enriching civic contents and practice. It is considered worthwhile to investigate teachers' use of ICT devices, since most persons have android phones now, in sourcing instructional resources considering that studies have reported unavailability and non-accessibility of ICT in Nigerian public secondary schools (e.g. Adelabu & Adu, 2014) which leads to non-utilization of ICT for direct class instructions in such schools.

Analysis of civic teachers' implementation of civic education:
Teachers' civic implementation is the sum of teachers' activities or approaches in delivering civic instruction. To get the mean score of each teacher's civic education implementation, the mean score of the responses of the 20 students sampled from each participating teacher's class on the items were summed to arrive at the overall mean score of each teacher's implementation of civic education. More clearly, a teacher's implementation of civics is the total mean score of his or her students' responses on students' questionnaire administered for that purpose. Survey instead of observation is used so as to reduce the non-reliability that could arise from a few times observations. Also, survey is considered over interview in order to reach a large number of student respondents for a robust and more reliable result.

Results
The findings of the study are presented in tables 2 and 3. Teachers' mean score on having undertaken civic education as a course in higher institution is low. This indicates that civic teachers are not trained in the subject. Also, civic teachers reported low attendance of civic education conferences or private reading of civic education journal articles, scholarly books, etc. This indicates low engagement in lifelong learning. Their mean score on use of information and communication technology for accessing instructional materials and use of online sourced materials to enhance civic instruction is low while mean score of sole reliance on government prescribed civic education textbooks is high. This indicates that civic teachers are not utilizing the educational benefits of ICT for teaching.
The result reported in table 2 revealed a generally low civic education implementation among teachers. Students' mean scores on items that suggest innovative, active and inclusive pedagogies such as planned debates, deliberative discussions, fieldtrips, role play, and use of resource persons are low. Students reported non-democratic civic classrooms where they are not giving opportunity to express their opinions and views concerning civic issues. They also reported use of lecture method by civic teachers, and planned interactions in form of questions and answers between them and their civic teachers during civic instructions.
Only teachers who studied Education/Political Science or Education/Social Studies reported undertaken, in their programmes, some citizenship education contents. The result of correlation analysis conducted showed no significant but modest positive correlation (r = .426, p = > .05; see, Cohen et al., 2011, P. 617) between teachers' training in civic education and implementation of civic education. The positive relationship indicates that an increase in teacher's training in civic education accidently occasions an increase in teacher's effective implementation of civic education while a decrease in teacher's training in civic education occasions a decrease in teacher's effective implementation of civic education. On the whole, the Mann Whitney U test ran on gender showed no significant difference (U = 24.000; p = > .05) in the mean scores of female teachers (M Rank = 9.10,) and male teachers (M Rank = 7.50) on implementation of civic education. Female teachers, however, had higher mean scores on implementation of civic education than do male teachers.
Table3: Students' Reported Civic Teachers' Implementation of Civic Education S/N ITEMS X SD DECISION 1. Our civic education teachers engage us in planned debates for some topics. 1.12 .320 Low 2. We are divided into groups to discuss political and civic issues or topics by our civic education teacher. Dun Bonferroni test post hoc comparison, however, showed that the mean score of teachers who studied "Other" courses differed significantly with those of teachers who studied Education/Political Science (P = .024) and Education/Social Studies (P = .020). . The whole model of the regression analysis conducted explained 19.9% of the variance (R Square Change = .199, F change (2,13) = 1.62, p > .05) in findings. After controlling for gender, educational background explained additional 14.0% of change in teacher's implementation of civic education (R Square Change = .145, F change (1,13) = 2.28, p > .05) but did not significantly predict teachers' civic classroom practices.

Discussion
Overall, the findings revealed civic teachers are not trained in civic education; civic education is poorly implemented as conventional methods dominate civic instructions as much as students are not actively engaged in civic instructions; and educational background significantly influenced civic teachers' implementation of civic education while gender did not.
The result of non-democratic civic classrooms and non-employment of active and inclusive pedagogies implying low engagement of students in civic instructions by teachers agree with previous concerns that Nigerian teachers rely heavily on Friere's (1993) banking method of teaching (e.g. Okobia, 2016) characterized by uncriticality, dominance and autocracy as well as recycling of uncriticality and noncooperation. The non employment of active and inclusive practices for civic education instructions could be explained by the additional finding that civic teachers lack training in civic education either as a unit or full course which further suggest the reason for Falade and Falade's (2013) finding that Nigerian civic teachers have poor knowledge of civic contents. Lack of knowledge of a subject matter and pedagogy questions a teacher's effectiveness in civic education implementation. In fact, lack of knowledge of civic education is an impediment to civic education implementation given that studies have shown teachers' knowledge to influence students' learning (e.g. Finkel & Ernst, 2005).
The finding is also associated with high number of teachers without background in either Education/Social Studies or Education/Political Science in which some of the contents of civic education are covered. This is especially as correlation analysis conducted suggests that increase in civic education training (which is provided in these two disciplines though minimally) is associated with increase in effective civic education implementation though to a lesser degree, and variance analysis showed that educational background statistically influenced teachers' implementation of civic education with the teacher who studied Education/Political Science recording the highest mean score followed by the teacher that studied Education/Social Studies. This supports findings of previous studies (e.g. Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000) that teachers' certification impacts teachers' effectiveness.
However, the teachers who studied Education/Political Science and Education/Social Studies cannot be said to be adequately equipped to teach civic education considering that minimal attention is paid to citizenship education in these programmes. These programmes constitute only some topics such as values, human rights, citizenship and civic duties featured in civic curriculum, but not the underlying assumptions (e.g. liberalism, conservatism, multiculturalism, republicanism, nation building, strong democracy, etc.) for introducing civic education or how to teach these topics or the vital questions surrounding these topics: for instance, how do you teach students to appreciate the rights of other persons which seem to be against their moral or cultural beliefs or practices? How do you convince students that one vote can make a difference? How do you convince students that their attitudes and behaviours towards the environment have implications for public health and sustainable development? How do you get them into practicing the virtues they learn? In other words, because of the way these programmes are structured, civic contents covered in them are taught prospective teachers in the same way they are taught students in pure social science disciplines. Logically, novice civic teachers characterized by "rigid adherence to taught rules and plans, little situational perception, and no discretionary judgement" (Eraut, 1994:124) and fragmented knowledge of the subject matter dominate Nigerian teaching cycle irrespective of their number of years of practice or experience.
Teachers' report of low attendance of civic conferences and workshops on civic education could be a result of lack of support for and funding of staff development by the government. Nigerian teachers' salary is inadequate to fund participation in paid conferences or workshops which participating in one could cost up to one-third of most Nigerian teachers' monthly salary. It could also be a result of unwillingness or underrating of the need to upgrade one's knowledge and expertise in a subject area especially as teaching is misunderstood as simple and unprofessional: this is more likely since they reported low engagement in reading of civic education journal articles or scholarly books. This poor attitude to updating of knowledge and practice of civic education suggest low engagement in lifelong learning defined as necessary for providing "people with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world" (Sharples, 2000:177).
Moreover, civic teachers reported low use of information and communication technology (ICT) in sourcing civic materials and contents for enriching their civic instructions. This could be as a result of the digital divide between developed and developing countries. Adelabu and Adu (2014) found that secondary schools in Nigeria lack ICT and internet facilities. Therefore, the low use of ICT devices for instructional purposes among civic teachers could be attributed to its non-availability and/or accessibility in schools. It could be that some of the teachers who have android phones that could access electronic materials lack finance to subscribe for internet data bundle or lack knowledge of the usability of the device for accessing online materials or lack power supply or internet network in their localities. The challenges of using ICT by teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa were documented by Hennessy, Harrison and Wamakote (2010).
The attitude of civic teachers towards implementation of civics and the attitude of government towards employment of untrained teachers with no effort to train them could be associated to lack of cognition of the power of civic education in constructing, reconstructing and transforming functional or dysfunctional societal ideologies or systems.

Conclusion
This study, deemed important for the high rate of incivility and social problems, investigated the influence of teacher characteristics on civic education implementation in Nigeria. The findings of the study revealed that civic teachers lack training background in civic education and do not employ participatory and experiential methods in civic education instructions. Also, civic teachers do not engage in lifelong learning or utilize ICT services for enrichment of civic instructional content. My assumption that male teachers would implement civic education better than do female teachers since men are consistently found to be more politically engaging was not met. Educational background or course of study of civic teachers significantly influenced teachers' implementation of civic education. Training of civic teachers on civic education content and methodologies, lifelong learning, and ICT use are strongly recommended.

Recommendations
Generally, employers of teachers should consider employing for civic education implementation teachers whose educational background is Education/Social Studies or Education/Political Science since the finding showed teachers with these qualifications as implementing civic education more effectively than teachers with unrelated qualifications. The following recommendations are specifically suggested for promotion of effective implementation of civic education.

Training of Civic Teachers on Civic Content and Methodologies:
Civic education lessons should be deep and practical -engaging students with key civic issues around them both in their school and in larger society. Knowledge of subject matter is valuable for impacting change in students' achievement and behaviours (Ball et al., 2008;Gess-Newsome, 1999;Shulman 1987). Therefore, efforts should be directed at developing civic teachers' content knowledge of civic education (i.e. knowledge about civic education) through nuanced, deep and adequate training on civic education content and practice. This is especially because the subject is subtly technical and complex considering the underlying assumptions behind it and the dynamic society and diverse nature of humankind which it serves. Some methodologies such as discussion methods, service learning, etc. are implicated as uniquely and highly effective for civic instruction (Kahne et al., 2013;Finkel & Ernst, 2005;Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). Special training should also be provided Nigerian civic teachers on these methods. Although, emphasis on teachers' knowledge of civic education contents is important, focus should be placed more on knowledge of how to impact civic values, knowledge, and skills in learners since the subject is largely affective, and more than responsible citizens is required to engender viable strong democracy and sustainable development of a society implying the need for civic education practice that advance beyond producing personally responsible citizens. Civic teachers should be encouraged to reflect on their civic knowledge as well as their civic and teaching practices with the view of improving their civic knowledge, attitude, skills and teaching practices especially as teachers' perceived characteristics such as competence, likeability, interest, and knowledge are found to influence students' learning (see Finkel & Ernst, 2005;Tarman & Doganay, 2017).
The constructivist theory of knowledge which guided this study suggests that teachers be encouraged to be constructive in their knowledge acquisition, structuring, restructuring and dissemination. Training programmes should, while exposing teachers to constructivism as a method of teaching, expose them to constructivism as a powerful tool for reflecting on ones knowledge and practices as well as improving ones expertise. This will promote effective implementation of the subject; reduce poor performance in the subject; most likely reduce or eliminate social problems such as ethnocentrism, social injustice, political apathy, 'victimness' of human rights violation, etc. associated with poor civic knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and also reduce non-democratic beliefs by preparing citizens to take workable actions to attain desired and viable democracy.
Promotion of ICT Use and lifelong learning among civic education teachers: FME recognizes the right and power of a teacher to deviate from lesson plan where the interest of a learner is involved (FME, 2016). Nigeria needs proficient and expert teachers who have strong and coherent grasp of holistic situational causes and the courage to tactically dissent from prescribed teaching rules and routines where there is cogent reason to so do or where the interest of the students so demands. However, proficiency and expertise cannot be attained through standardized or modelled teacher education programmes but through experiences, practices, and especially lifelong learning "used interchangeably with lifelong education, advanced education, continuous education, and adult education" (Sahin, Akbasil, & Yelkin, 2010) and which "has emerged as a policy response to the needs of changing society" (Coolahan, 2002:8). Hammerness et al. (2005) have suggested the need for teacher education candidates to be equipped for lifelong learning. Therefore, teacher education programmes in Nigeria should be broadened to emphasize lifelong learning so as to forestall the situation where teachers in general and civic teachers in particular do not attend civic education conferences or workshops, read papers or articles on civic education, enrich contents of prescribed textbooks with discretionary materials sourced from quality papers and trusted newspapers, etc. Importantly, free or sponsored in-service training opportunities via workshops, seminars, and conferences on civic education and teaching should be made regularly available for teachers in order to make the emphasized lifelong learning fruitful.
Civic teachers should also be taught how to use their android phones in accessing quality civic materials since most schools lack ICT facilities in Nigeria. They should be encouraged to utilize their personal computers, tablets and android phones for continuous and self-dependent learning through accessing materials on civic education from Google scholar, research gates, institutional repositories, other academic websites, and broadcasting channels and newspapers' online pages such as CNN, BBC, TVC, Channels, Daily News, Vanguard, etc. This requires financial sacrifice on their part. Thus, there is need to prepare them to perceive themselves as social agents.