Motivation, Educational Policy and Achievement ─ A Critical Perspective

Motivation, Educational Policy and Achievement seeks to theorise and critique current trends in education through the lens of key ideas from motivational theory. Its purpose is to argue that current educational trends on a macro level are a significant threat to the provision of classroom practices seeking to create an educational environment that motivational theorists would argue is best placed to develop motivational equality, optimal motivation, and wellbeing.

Linking major contemporary theories of motivation to wider educational and political debate, this unique resource will bring about two major benefits: it will vocalise and mobilise the substantial research evidence from motivational theory in order to ensure that it contributes more explicitly to a critique of current neoliberal trends, and motivation researchers will be better positioned to move the theory forward in relation to what is happening in the real world of education. Areas covered include:

• developing a more critical space in relation to the field of motivational psychology and contemporary educational policy;

• linking motivational theory to education policy and broader social and political structures;

• the neoliberal educational landscape;

• an overview of achievement goal theory and self-determination theory.

Motivation, Educational Policy and Achievement is a ‘wake-up call’ for educational practitioners and policy makers and essential reading for all advanced students and researchers in the fields of educational psychology and educational research.

Sam Carr is a psychologist, a Lecturer in education and Director of Studies forEducation with Psychology at the University of Bath, UK.