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

Abstract

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.

Notes

¹Of importance, the focus of this issue—relating motivational theories to identity processes—is different from the complementary focus on relating identity theories to motivational processes.