Description
The next generation of global citizens, Generation Z enters tertiary education with unique digital fluency, transnational identity, and expectations of civic engagement. Yet the discipline of International Studies (IS) has remained largely anchored in traditional lecture models, Western‐centric theories, and pre-digital methods. This paper investigates how Gen Z students in Nigeria engage with global politics and world issues, and how their pedagogical preferences demand a reevaluation of IS teaching and research. Drawing on surveys and focus groups with undergraduates in Nigerian IS programmes and analysis of their social‐media discourse, the study examines (1) how Gen Z conceptualises “the international” and their role in it, (2) the pedagogical practices that resonate with their learning styles—such as interactive multimedia, gamified simulations, and digital collaborative platforms, and (3) how IS curricula might adapt to incorporate diaspora networks, digital activism, and global remittance dynamics shaping these youth. Findings highlight that Nigerian Gen Z students favour visual, social, and immersive learning modes (consistent with local evidence) and view global politics through layered identities of national, diasporic and digital belonging. The paper argues that to remain fit for the future, IS must integrate digital pedagogy, Global-South perspectives, and youth agency into both its methods and curricula. This shift has implications not only for teaching in Nigeria but for the discipline globally as it enters its next fifty years.
Keywords
Generation Z; International Studies pedagogy; Global South; Nigeria; digital learning; youth global citizenship.
