Jung-In Kim is an associate professor in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver

© 2018 by Caddo Gap Press cognitive engagement, persistence, and well-being are generated via the fulfillment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy (need to initiate one’s own actions), competence (need to experience mastery and control outcomes), and relatedness (need to connect to others [Deci & Ryan, 2002; Niemiec & Ryan, 2009]). Depending on the degree to which these three basic psychological needs are supported through interactions with the people around them, students would experience a greater self-determined motivation for learning by identifying the underlying value of an activity (vs. experiencing a less self-determined motivation because of internal or external pressures). A great deal of research has examined how the needs for autonomy and competence are supported (e.g., by providing rationales or choices [Assor, Kaplan, & Roth, 2002] and optimally challenging activities and opportunities to expand their academic capabilities [Niemiec & Ryan, 2009[). However, relatively few investigations have examined the sources involved in fulfilling the need for relatedness within classroom contexts. The need for relatedness has been defined as the “fulfillment of relatedness needs” (Deci & Ryan, 2002, p. 7). Richer and Vallerand (1998) further conceptualized the need for relatedness to include acceptance and intimacy. Students feel accepted, or belong, when they are socially supported, respected, and included in a given context (e.g., In my relationships with my classmates, I feel supported). Furthermore, they experience a sense of intimacy when they feel close to or included by others (e.g., I feel close to them). According to Niemiec and Ryan (2009), the fulfillment of the relatedness needs facilitates the process of internalizing external values because “people tend to whether their relatedness needs were satisfied in a teacher education class. Remarkably, the need for relatedness (i.e., the “psychological sense of being with others in secure communion or unity” [Deci & Ryan, 2002, p. 7]) has received less attention in the literature relative to the needs for competence and autonomy as noted by Hutman, Konieczna, Kerner, Armstrong, and Fitzpatrick (2012). A number of studies have reported on the positive effects of teachers’ pedagogical caring on students’ fulfillment of relatedness needs (Freeman, Anderman, & Jensen, 2007; Huff, 2009; Wentzel, 1997), although few studies have been performed to determine the ways in which the relatedness needs are fulfilled. Our study explored how the students report different fulfillment of relatedness needs intertwined with their identities as participating learners based on the frameworks of identities-in-practice and identities-in-discourse (e.g., Norton & Toohey, 2011; Varghese et al., 2005). We argue that the students’ “psychological sense of being with others in secure communion or unity” (Deci & Ryan, 2002, p. 7) could be accounted for by exploring the students’ identities in social and cultural contexts based on the preceding frameworks. In what follows, we begin by discussing (a) the importance of students’ fulfillment of relatedness needs to support their optimal motivational experiences and (b) the significance of investigating the interface of the students’ identities and their fulfillment of relatedness needs within the classroom context.