Enhancing Dress Code Compliance among Pre-service Teachers in Colleges of Education in Benue State: Leveraging Digital Content Creation (DCC)

The study investigated enhancing dress code compliance among pre-service teachers in colleges of education in Benue State: leveraging digital content creation (DCC). Guided by three research questions and two hypotheses, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised 1675 (1020 males and 655 females) pre-service teachers in public Colleges of Education (COE) in Benue State during the 2024/2025 academic session. Through the stratified sampling technique, a sample of 323 (198 males and 125 females) pre-service teachers participated in the study. A self-developed questionnaire was used for data collection. Using Cronbach’s alpha, the internal consistency coefficients of 0.81, 0.76 and 0.78 were obtained for clusters I, II and III, respectively, while the overall reliability of the questionnaire was 0.77. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers often comply with dress code policies in colleges of education in Benue State, with no significant gender difference in compliance. Peer influence, social media trends, cultural norms, and economic factors, among others, are the factors influencing dress code compliance among pre-service teachers in Colleges of Education in Benue State. Digital Content Creation (DCC) influences dress code compliance to a high extent among pre-service teachers in Colleges of Education in Benue State, with no significant gender difference in the influence. The study recommended, among other things, that Colleges of Education in collaboration with the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) should integrate professional dressing into the teacher education curriculum.