A qualitative study of Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents’ perceptions of the factors affecting their engagement and performance in school

Although a growing body of quantitative research has examined the non-cognitive factors affecting the school engagement and performance of adolescents across cultures, there is relatively sparse qualitative research investigating the perceptions of adolescents regarding the factors influencing their engagement and performance in school. This focus group study comprising 32 Indian adolescents from India (mean age = 16.78 years) and 20 Indian immigrant adolescents from Canada (mean age = 17.05 years), therefore, using a self-determination theory perspective, explored the perceptions of Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents about the factors affecting their school engagement and performance in India and Canada, respectively. Thematic analysis of eight focus group discussions suggested that Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents were primarily extrinsically motivated toward school and academics. Further, both the Indian and Indian immigrant adolescents perceived their classroom teachers as controlling rather than autonomy-supportive. Implications of the findings are briefly discussed.