A Dialogue Between Dewey and Self-Determination Theory: Motivation in Response to Monetized Education

• In Event: Dewey's Democracy in Unprecedented Times

Abstract

The proposed inquiry studies the concept of motivation in education’s new corporatized context. As educational psychologist and philosopher of education, we will engage both John Dewey and contemporary Self-Determination theorists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (2000). Revisiting Experience and Education in light of James Giarelli’s Kneller Lecture (2012), we will re-theorize Dewey’s notions of “old” and “new” education, to set this context for encountering Self-Determination Theory. This paper theorizes a possible detriment to motivation occasioned by tensions between old and new education currently, where the latter’s monetizing contradicts both Deweyan and Self-Determination motivation. This inquiry proposes integrating resistance against purely external motivation into educational practice and engaging learners’ critical capacities for such resistance to develop their internal motivation.

Authors

• Jacqueline Goldman, University of Oklahoma

• Susan Laird, University of Oklahoma

• Benjamin C. Heddy, University of Oklahoma