Future goal setting, task motivation and learning of minority and non-minority students in Dutch schools

Cross-cultural research on minority school achievement yields mixed findings on the motivational impact of future goal setting for students from disadvantaged minority groups. Relevant and recent motivational research, integrating Future Time Perspective Theory with Self-Determination Theory, has not yet been validated among minority students.

To replicate across cultures the known motivational benefits of perceived instrumentality and internal regulation by distant future goals; to clarify when and how the future motivates minority students' educational performance.

Participants in this study were 279 minority students (100 of Turkish and 179 of Moroccan origin) and 229 native Dutch students in Dutch secondary schools.

Participants rated the importance of future goals, their perceptions of instrumentality, their task motivation and learning strategies. Dependent measures and their functional relations with future goal setting were simultaneously validated across minority and non-minority students, using structural equation modelling in multiple groups.

As expected, Positive Perceived Instrumentality for the future increases task motivation and (indirectly) adaptive learning of both minority and non-minority students. But especially internally regulating future goals are strongly related to more task motivation and indirectly to more adaptive learning strategies.

Our findings throw new light on the role of future goal setting in minority school careers: distant future goals enhance minority and non-minority students' motivation and learning, if students perceive positive instrumentality and if their schoolwork is internally regulated by future goals.