Motivational goals and school achievement : Lebanese-background students in South Western Sydney

There is a general belief that Lebanese-background students in Australia do not usually perform well at school. This study examines the school achievement of Lebanese-background students and the major motivational factors related to their achievement. A total of 271 Year Nine students (117 Lebanese background and 154 non-Lebanese background) in three high schools in southwestern Sydney completed the Inventory of School Motivation and the Facilitating Conditions Questionnaire and this information was used to examine the students' motivational profiles and the salience of motivational and other background variables in predicting school achievement. The study indicates that the Lebanese-background group is lower on variables which predict both their English and Science results, such as their valuing of education, and their perceived family and teacher support. The strongest predictors for achievement for the Lebanese-background group were competition, social concern, recognition, and token reward; however, these variables were not the strongest motivators for the students of Lebanese background. The variable most strongly valued by the Lebanese-background group was power, and that was found to be negatively related to their school achievement. The significance of these findings is that the Lebanese-background group does not strongly value the positive predictors for school achievement and attention needs to be paid to enhance these among this group; and that the Lebanese-background group shows higher levels of the negative predictors and hence attention needs to be given to diminish the students' negative perspectives which predict lower academic performance.