Chapter 1: Sociocultural Perspectives On Student Engagement: Recent Advances and New Insights

Student engagement and student motivation have emerged from closely connected, though distinct, bodies of literature and fields of study (Skinner &Raine, 2022). Current theoretical perspectives view student engagement as an outcome of motivation (Reschly &Christenson, 2022; Skinner &Raine, 2022). While interest in understanding sociocultural influences¹ on student motivation began over half a century ago (e.g., Maehr, 1974a, 1974b), the sociocultural perspective on student engagement has only gained scholarly attention more recently (e.g., Skinner et al., 2022; Wang, Degol, et al., 2019). This delayed focus on sociocultural influences on student engagement may not be surprising, given that significant academic interest in the construct has only surged in the last 20 years, notably following the seminal 2004 paper by Fredricks and her colleagues, “School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence.” In this influential work, Fredricks et al. acknowledged the impact of “family, community, culture, and educational context” on engagement (p. 73), though they concentrated primarily on the influence of educational contexts in their review. An overarching goal of this volume is to address that gap by focusing on the role of the family, community, and culture on student engagement.