DECOLONIZING THE CURRICULUM THROUGH IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING: THE IMPACT OF AUGMENTED REALITY ON STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WITH SOCIO-SOCIAL HISTORY IN NIGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

The restoration of history to the Nigerian curriculum following a sixteen-year attempt at “foundational erasure" (2009–2025) has triggered a profound "restoration crisis" in Higher Education, characterized by a generation of students cognitively distanced from their national identity. This study employs a Comparative Empirical Analysis to measure the "Success Ratio" of Augmented Reality as an itinerant pathway for bypassing systemic technological neglect and the stagnation of traditional 2D textbooks. Drawing on a landscape where professionals report a lack of ICT integration and existing tools suffer from low functionality, we contrast the Nigerian "passive recipient" baseline with validated international benchmarks. Empirical data from Japan and the Philippines demonstrates that Augmented Reality (AR) mediated immersive storytelling can boost knowledge retention from a stagnant 5% to a transformative 25%, effectively bridging the "retention gap" created by the "null curriculum". By synthesizing findings on historical empathy and the artifact advantage in archaeological AR, this research argues that 3D digital reconstructions facilitate digital repatriation, granting students and even lecturers sensory access to cultural treasures currently inaccessible due to physical or colonial erasure. The study concludes that the transition to a constructivist, AR-empowered classroom is an epistemological necessity for digital decolonization. The paper recommends mandatory digitalization metrics for university accreditation and the establishment of a National AR Artifact Library to reinstate indigenous vantage points within the Nigerian Humanities