Culture and achievement motivation.

Abstract

This symposium and the papers that compose it reflect the fact that the study of culture and achievement motivation has truly ‘‘come of age.’’ Gone are the days when a few hearty souls from Europe, Great Britain, the United States, and Australia, as well as a few others imbedded in the research traditions largely associated with ‘‘Western oriented centres of knowledge’’ stood as the primary source for prompting and guiding research on the nature and nurture of motivation. Equally, if not more, important is that studies of culture and motivation are increasingly conducted under the purview of a multicultural community of scholars. Certainly, this represents an exciting development, and the papers that compose this symposium are interesting as they provide fresh perspectives on motivation as it emerges in contexts and cultures not often portrayed in the motivation literature in the so-called ‘‘Western world.’’ While the scholars who have contributed to this symposium reflect an awareness of the research traditions of the past, they also exhibit special insights into the uniqueness of the varied cultures they have studied, the meanings of motivation that are associated with these cultures and the varied impact of these meanings on ways of acting and thinking. Certainly, this all speaks well for the level of scholarship evident in these papers. It also holds out the promise that the study of culture and motivation is neither dormant nor outmoded. Permit me, however, to raise an issue that I am regularly inclined to raise with the motivation research community in the United States. From the outset, the study of achievement motivation