Douglas Yacek’s Transformative Education is critiqued according to how well various transformative education practices reflect current motivational theories. The conversion, emancipation, reconstruction, and aspirational strategies are set against popular theories of motivation in education: Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory, Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset Theory, and Abraham Maslow’s Human Needs Theory. Overall, the aspirational approach is found to be more consistent with motivational theory, and future directions for the aspirational approach are discussed.
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