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ABSTRACT
Among 4th–6th-grade students (165 girls, 150 boys) in the Netherlands, the author examined ethnic differences in two aspects of teacher-oriented academic motivation: working in order to please the teacher and dependence on the teacher for academic help. Given higher levels of power distance in Turkish and Moroccan versus Dutch culture, both measures and their correlates were compared for 132 Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch students, and 183 ethnic Dutch students. Analyses showed that Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch students scored higher on pleasing the teacher and dependence on the teacher. For them, but not for the ethnic Dutch students, teacher-oriented motivation was positively related to intrinsic motivation and perceived academic competence. Also, students from all groups reported more dependence on the teacher and more intrinsic motivation the more they appreciated their teachers. Results support the notion that teacher-oriented extrinsic motivation is autonomous, rather than controlled for students from power-distant cultures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was financially supported by the Jacobs Foundation.
Notes
Some students had two teachers, which is not uncommon in the Dutch educational system. Those students were allowed to give two ratings, and I calculated the average of them both.
In addition, there were no significant gender and age differences for any of the continuous variables.
These correlations were obtained in the fixed-loadings model.
To estimate these main effects the interaction between teacher appreciation and ethnic group was dropped from the model.
To estimate this main effect of social desirability, its interaction with ethnic group was dropped from the model.