Academic motivation in a pandemic context: a conceptual review of prominent theories and an integrative model

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on students’ learning, well-being, and academic motivation. Due to the pandemic, shifts to remote/hybrid learning, physical distancing, and concerns regarding health and financial prospects are most likely influencing students’ perceptions, values, goals, and behaviours. Moreover, COVID-related discrimination and health disparities disproportionately affecting minoritized individuals continue to lay bare racial inequities embedded in the U.S. and in the sociohistoric contexts from which Students of Colour derive cultural values towards schooling. As motivational shifts are anticipated due to this unprecedented confluence of factors in the wake of the pandemic, this conceptual review examines five prominent theories of academic motivation to provide greater conceptual clarity of mechanisms impacting students’ motivation during times of transition and upheaval, specifically instructional, social, future-oriented, and sociocultural shifts. I conclude by presenting an integrative model synthesising across theories—the Motivation Within Changing Culturalized Contexts Model—and implications for educational practice.