‘To what extent can an autonomy-supportive art curriculum foster student motivation and engagement in a classroom where students are at risk of educational disadvantage, considering the challenges of relatedness, competence and choice overwhelm’

Art education possesses the scope to be transformative, offering students a space to create, express and understand themselves and the world around them. Yet, for some students and particularly those at risk of educational disadvantage, the opportunity to fully engage with this process is often hindered by systemic and social barriers manifesting instead as disengagement, low motivation, goal disorientation, low perceived competence and fractured social relationships. Throughout my inquiry I was driven to seek more knowledge regarding how autonomy-supportive art curricula could provide students with the conditions necessary to access the deep, meaningful experiences that art education has to offer. This was further strengthen by the ways in which the new Junior Cycle Visual Art Specification offers more flexibility and autonomy for art educators in developing their curriculum.

Conducted in a DEIS post-primary school over ten weeks, this mixed-methods action research project examined how the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness—central to Self Determination Theory —could be supported through carefully designed teaching strategies.

Findings suggest that autonomy and competence can be meaningfully supported through structured choice, scaffolded skill-building, and opportunities for personal voice in artmaking. However, relatedness proved more resistant to intervention, with peer dynamics and fragmented social structures hindering efforts to build classroom belonging. These outcomes highlight the necessity of long-term, responsive strategies that explicitly nurture student connection as part of curriculum design.

By fostering environments where students feel connected, capable and in control of their learning, educators can create conditions for meaningful artistic engagement – where students don’t just make art but find themselves within it.