Chapter 1: Sociocultural Perspectives On School Motivation, Engagement, And Achievement: Theory, Research, and Application

The school motivation of students is closely associated with the quality of their school engagement and achievement, as well as their well-being and flourishing in other important areas of life including “the psychological, cognitive, social, and physical qualities that students need to live a happy and fulfilling life” (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2017, p. 8). Identifying facilitating conditions of school motivation and their processes is thus a meaningful educational purpose, both in and of itself and as a pathway to the holistic development of young people. Although motivation appears to be a largely individual-level phenomena, it is unequivocally social and societal in nature as well. As is implicit in the African adage quoted above, motivation does not develop in a contextual vacuum. Thus, educational policies and practices seeking to foster school motivation, and to understand its influence on engagement, achievement, and well-being, will be effective only when we, intentionally and systematically, take the sociocultural foundation of these psychological constructs into consideration.