Student Motivation

My social justice research goal is to qualitatively measure what factors into students’ motivation to perform well academically in disadvantaged or impoverished neighborhoods.  My rationale behind this is thinking about all of the factors that economically disadvantaged students must think about in a given day as compared to their peers in affluent school districts, there may be different motivating factors for these students that are not being addressed by all of their teachers.  When a teenager must consider whether he/she will have a bed to sleep in or a stairwell at night, or if his/her family will have enough food to eat that week, or safety concerns in a neighborhood plagued with gang violence, that adolescent may not see the relevance in scoring highly on a biology exam.  For the student whose largest stressor is whether he/she will be awarded a new iphone from their parents for earning a good report card, that student’s biology exam is more significant to his/her life.  My goal is to discover specific aspects of a course/teacher that will motivate a student in a high needs district that may be different than factors for students with higher socioeconomic statuses. (CC)