The relationship between social class and students' academic achievement goals : three hypotheses

Educational and social psychologists have done little to explore the relationship between social class and goal pursuit (Massey et al. 2008). In the case of achievement goals, considerable attention to the construct has produced more than 1,000 papers and theses since the early 1980s (Hulleman et al. 2010), but with little focus on social class. However, related research into intrinsic/extrinsic motivation suggests that achievement goals might differ along class lines (for example, Ginsburg and Bronstein 1993). Given that parental socioeconomic status has been consistently linked with student academic achievement throughout childhood and adolescence (Sirin 2005), lack of attention to social class in achievement goal research is surprising. It is timely that the achievement goal construct receives attention given mounting concern about the influence of social class on academic outcomes (Strenze 2007).