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Do Social Institutions Necessarily Suppress Individuals’ Need for Autonomy? The Possibility of Schools as Autonomy-Promoting Contexts Across the Globe

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Human Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Context

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology ((CAPP,volume 1))

Abstract

Schools across the globe vary in how autonomy-promoting they are. Recognizing that some social institutions attain seemingly harmonious functioning by suppressing individuals’ autonomy, the first half of the chapter asks whether these hierarchical institutions necessarily need to be autonomy suppressive. The second half of the chapter illustrates how schools can function as autonomy-promoting cultural institutions, even when embedded within hierarchical societies that contrast social hierarchy against individual autonomy. To be truly autonomy-promoting, schools would be designed in ways that (a) allow students to shape important aspects of the school and support students attempts to form authentic, direction-giving values, goals, and interests and (b) offer frequently recurring opportunities for students to experience autonomy during learning activities. Numerous examples of these two key features of autonomy-promoting schools are offered. A final question asks how cross-culturally feasible autonomy-promoting schools are, and we conclude that they are quite feasible in egalitarian countries with autonomy-conductive social norms while they are unlikely cultural products in hierarchical countries with control-conducive social norms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. World Class University Project Group, Department of Education, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, South Korea

    Johnmarshall Reeve

  2. Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel

    Avi Assor

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  1. Johnmarshall Reeve
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  2. Avi Assor
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Correspondence to Johnmarshall Reeve .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Campus Drive 9, Saskatoon, S7N 5A5, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Valery I. Chirkov

  2. Dept. Psychology,, Psychiatry & Education, University of Rochester, Rochester, 14627, New York, USA

    Richard M. Ryan

  3. Dept. Psychology, University of Missouri, McAlester Hall 112, Columbia, 65211, Missouri, USA

    Kennon M. Sheldon

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Reeve, J., Assor, A. (2011). Do Social Institutions Necessarily Suppress Individuals’ Need for Autonomy? The Possibility of Schools as Autonomy-Promoting Contexts Across the Globe. In: Chirkov, V., Ryan, R., Sheldon, K. (eds) Human Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Context. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9667-8_6

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