Speaker
Description
Bowman, V. Y.
Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya.
hoticearrow@gmail.com
Track: Digital Pedagogy and Teaching Innovation
VICTOR YUNANA BOWMAN
PRIMARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
KADUNA STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION GIDAN WAYA, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
E-mail: hoticearrow@gmail.com
07037108080
Prepared for presentation at the International Conference on Digital Innovations and Higher Education [ICDIHE 2026]
University of Kigali, Rwanda, 23–27 November 2026
Conference Theme: Digital Innovations and Higher Education
Abstract
This paper interrogates how digital media reconfigure participation within Theatre for Development (TfD) in the Nigerian context, moving beyond celebratory narratives of technological expansion to examine the structural transformations of engagement itself. While digital platforms are often framed as instruments that extend participatory reach, this study argues that they fundamentally reshape the conditions under which participation is enacted, experienced, and evaluated. Drawing on participatory communication theory, media ecology, platform studies, and performance theory, the paper adopts a qualitative conceptual methodology to analyse the shift from embodied, co-present interaction to digitally mediated, platform-conditioned communication. Central to the analysis is the concept of the participation gradient, which conceptualises participation as a continuum ranging from passive exposure to co-creative engagement. The study demonstrates that digital environments tend to privilege visibility, speed, and low-intensity interaction, often constraining dialogic depth and collective meaning-making. At the same time, it recognises that digital participation is not uniformly limiting, but unevenly distributed and contextually shaped by infrastructural conditions, digital literacy, and platform logics. Situating the analysis within Nigeria, the paper shows how mobile-first access patterns, linguistic diversity, and socio-economic disparities produce stratified forms of participation. It concludes by proposing a redefinition of participation as a media-contingent construct, arguing that meaningful engagement in digital TfD requires deliberate design strategies that foreground dialogue, reciprocity, and co-creation.
Keywords: Theatre for Development; Digital Participation; Participation Gradient; Media Ecology; Platform Studies