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An Exploration of the Impact of Academic Strike Actions on Older Adult Lecturers in Nigeria

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Abstract

Education transforms the individual and society into a better state of development. Lecturers who are key actors in ensuring the smooth running of most university institutions often embark on strike actions to demand better welfare structures and services that enable them to discharge their duties. While these frequent strikes impact lecturers and students; older adult lecturers suffer greatly from the impact of frequent strikes in Nigeria and studies on the impact of frequent strikes on older adult lecturers are scarce. This qualitative study seeks to fill the gap using an interpretive phenomenological approach by exploring the difficulties frequent strikes have on older adult lecturers and approaches to curb them. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 older adult lecturers who are 60 years and older purposively selected from two universities in Nigeria that have experienced the incessant Academic Staff Union of Universities strike over time. Data from the study were analyzed in themes using manual coding. Findings from the study showed that frequent strikes had a psychological impact such as depression, adverse financial impact on the well-being of older lecturers, and also led to an increased brain drain in the educational sector. It is recommended that policies on education and aging should promote the establishment of effective conflict-resolution mechanisms between university management, lecturers, social workers, and relevant stakeholders as well as enhance resources for quality aging.

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Data Availability

Data from this study have been anonymized and are available from the corresponding/lead author.

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Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Chika Rita Ikeorji

  2. University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

    Blessing Ngowari Ramsey-Soroghaye

Authors
  1. Chika Rita Ikeorji
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Contributions

The manuscript was written by all authors, who also made significant revisions, agreed to its submission, and gave their approval for submission. To ensure that any concerns about the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are duly investigated and addressed, all authors are responsible for all aspects of the work. Specifically, Chika Rita Ikeorji brought about the idea of the manuscript, she collected data, transcribed data, and also contributed to the discussion of findings, and saw to the general completion of the manuscript. Blessing Ngowari Ramsey-Soroghaye, assisted with the methodology, data collection and edited the entire manuscript for clarity and academic prowess.

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Correspondence to Blessing Ngowari Ramsey-Soroghaye.

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Ikeorji, C.R., Ramsey-Soroghaye, B.N. An Exploration of the Impact of Academic Strike Actions on Older Adult Lecturers in Nigeria. Population Ageing (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-024-09443-y

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