ABSTRACT
How do you trace development in ways that adequately account for both individuals and their contexts? While earlier studies of motivation certainly attended to issues of context, this question has taken on greater urgency as the field shifts its theoretical understanding of the relationships between people and the world. Instead of seeing context as a variable in—or even as the site of—individuals’ cognitive development, new views on learning suggest that motivations are co-constituted by individuals and context, demanding a simultaneous analysis of both (Nolen and Ward, 2008).
