Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation: How Perceived Racial Prejudice Can Influence Ability Beliefs, Expectancy Beliefs and Subject Task Value of Metis Post-Secondary Students

To explore how the threat of prejudice can interfere with a learner's ability beliefs, expectancies of success and subjective task value, 165 Metis post-secondary students were asked to imagine themselves applying for a job with a non-Indigenous employer. Participants were grouped into high and low Metis identifiers and then placed into one of three groups: (1) Employer prejudiced, (2) Employer non-prejudiced, and (3) Employer's attitudes about Indigenous peoples unknown. A 2x3 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the relationship between Metis identity (high/low) and five concepts: (1) expectations about being hired; (2) value placed on being hire; (3) learners' beliefs about the mock employer's integrity; (4) the extent to which learners held overgeneralized negative beliefs about non-Indigenous people; and (5) actual task performance. Although there were no interaction effects, a number of main effects were reported. While students with a stronger sense of Metis identity reported more overall optimism about being hired that those learners with a weaker sense of Metis identity, they nevertheless reported less motivation to perform an assigned task to the best of their respective abilities. Students in the prejudiced condition reported lower expectations about being hired and less motivation to perform the assigned task to the best of their ability. Students in the prejudiced condition also reported stronger negative generalized beliefs about both the mock employer and non-Indigenous people in general. Although the students in the prejudiced condition reported less motivation to exert high effort in the assigned task, their actual performance of the task was not related to whether the hypothetical employer was described as prejudiced, non-prejudiced, or neither toward Indigenous peoples. Future studies should explore how one's sense of Metis identity and other minority group identity may influence reactions to a threatening academic environment and suppress academic motivation.