THE POWER OF AUTONOMY
One helpful framework for remembering these important goals of education is Self Determination Theory( SDT). As a metatheory of human motivation and personality, SDT posits three basic psychological needs, which all humans share across ages and cultures: competence, relatedness, and autonomy( CSDT). Over more than four decades, psychologists across the world have tested SDT and generated an enormous body of research. The Center For Self Determination Theory website 1 is a good resource for those interested in exploring the academic literature. But for our purposes in this issue of Connections, I want to unpack the meaning of autonomy and why it, alongside competence and relatedness, is so crucial for students of all ages.
Within SDT, autonomy does not mean independence or individualism as prized in many western cultures. Instead, autonomy as a basic human need means acting from
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... we forget that what students need most from schools are environments that support self-efficacy, connection, and inner motivation.
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1. https:// selfdeterminationtheory. org / a sense of choice and volition, which can manifest in many diverse forms. As a group of psychologists put it in 2003,“ a person is autonomous... when he or she fully endorses the actions in which [ they are ] engaged and / or the values expressed by them.” This quality can be felt, and the need for autonomy can be met, across a spectrum of so-called individualist and collectivist cultures. But it cannot be felt / met when one feels“ controlled by forces... that compel one to behave in specific ways regardless of one’ s values or interests”( Chirkov, et. al.).
This last insight points to the major break SDT makes with Skinnerian behaviorism. Before the 1980s, the dominant academic theory for understanding human motivation was operant conditioning, which holds that reinforcing behavior with rewards is the best way to bring about desired results( O’ Hara). Similarly, behaviorists believe that punishment is the best means of keeping undesirable behavior from recurring. From an SDT perspective, the external locus of control here is the key problem, and it points back to the dynamic that so often exists between young people and adults. Without taking into account internal needs, rewards and punishments merely manipulate, usually based on a power imbalance( Deci, et. al.). Sound familiar?
As many middle and high school teachers know too well, operant conditioning is the unspoken paradigm that still governs most schools. Consciously or not, we use grades as carrots and sticks to ensure compliance,
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CSEE Connections Summer 2025 Page 3