Motivation and Identity: The Relations of Action and Development in Educational Contexts—An Introduction to the Special Issue

The conviction that the goals of education should extend beyond situations to include long-term self-processes calls for exploring the relations between students' situated actions—their motivation for engagement in school—and their identity. Each of the five articles in this special issue is based in a different contemporary motivational framework: expectancy-value, self-determination theory, interest, self-system, and the sociocultural perspective. Each article also focuses on somewhat different self and identity processes and describes a novel conceptualization of the relations between motivation and identity. The articles, and the commentary that probes them, represent but a few of the various ways by which motivational and self-identity processes may be theoretically related and of the research directions that such theorizing may promote. As a collection, these articles highlight the potential of linking the motivation and identity literatures for advancing educational–psychological theory and research as well as educational practice.

[1]  J. Brophy.  Motivating students to learn, 2nd ed. , 2004 .

[2]  L. Goossens,et al.  Identity styles and causality orientations: in search of the motivational underpinnings of the identity exploration process , 2005 .

[3]  J. Gee.  Identity as an analytic lens for research in education , 2000 .

[4]  C. Sansone,et al.  Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation : the search for optimal motivation and performance , 2000 .

[5]  I. Fras.  Identity: Youth and Crisis , 1968 .

[6]  R. Ryan,et al.  What Adolescents Need: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Development within Families, School, and Society. , 2002 .

[7]  K. A. Renninger,et al.  Individual interest and its implications for understanding intrinsic motivation , 2000 .

[8]  C. Steele.  A threat in the air. How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. , 1997, The American psychologist.

[9]  K. Ann Renninger,et al.  Individual interest and development: Implications for theory and practice. , 1992 .

[10]  S. Peck,et al.  An Education in Awareness: Self, Motivation, and Self-Regulated Learning in Contemplative Perspective , 2009, Educational psychologist.

[11]  J. Guardia.  Developing Who I Am: A Self-Determination Theory Approach to the Establishment of Healthy Identities , 2009 .

[12]  J. Eccles,et al.  The development of achievement task values: A theoretical analysis , 1992 .

[13]  David C. McClelland,et al.  How Do Self-Attributed and Implicit Motives Differ?. , 1989 .

[14]  J. Osborne.  Race and Academic Disidentification , 1997 .

[15]  David L. Blustein,et al.  Reinvigorating the Study of Vocational Exploration: A Framework for Research , 2000 .

[16]  K. Renninger,et al.  Interest and Identity Development in Instruction: An Inductive Model , 2009 .

[17]  S. Peck,et al.  Self and Identity Processes in School Motivation, Learning, and Achievement , 2006 .

[18]  Avi Kaplan,et al.  Exploratory Orientation as an Educational Goal , 2006 .

[19]  Allan Wigfield,et al.  Competence, motivation, and identity development during adolescence , 2005 .

[20]  Nelson N. Foote.  Identification as the basis for a theory of motivation. , 1951 .

[21]  D. Spalding.  The Principles of Psychology , 1873, Nature.

[22]  J. Eccles.  Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action , 2009 .

[23]  Jere Brophy,et al.  Connecting With the Big Picture , 2009 .

[24]  Mary M. Mccaslin.  Co-Regulation of Student Motivation and Emergent Identity , 2009 .

[25]  J. Marcia.  Development and validation of ego-identity status. , 1966, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  J. Eccles.  Subjective Task Value and the Eccles et al. Model of Achievement-Related Choices. , 2005 .

[27]  E. Deci,et al.  Handbook of Self-Determination Research , 2002 .

[28]  Jere Brophy,et al.  Toward a model of the value aspects of motivation in education: Developing appreciation for.. , 1999 .

[29]  Cher Ping,et al.  Motivating students to learn , 2005, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[30]  Robert Hanna.  What is the self? , 2011, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.