Since Maehr’s (1974) pioneering work, motivation theory has acknowledged its cultural foundations. Yet dominant goal regulation frameworks often give limited attention to how systemic inequities shape students’ self-regulation. Developed within paradigms that have often bracketed race and structural power, traditional motivation theories frequently overlook the lived experiences of students from structurally marginalized communities. This paper reorients motivation theory by embedding goal regulation within a racialized ecological framework that foregrounds structural constraint, cultural wealth, and resistance. Building on Kim et al.’s (2023) multiple goals regulation framework, we introduce four key processes: identity-affirming goal prioritization (deciding which goals to pursue amid competing demands), constraint-driven goal switching (recalibrating aspirations in response to systemic exclusion), epistemic goal shielding (resisting deficit narratives that devalue students’ ambitions), and resistance-driven goal adaptation (redefining success in terms of dignity, collective uplift, and self-determination). Drawing on critical and ecological models, we argue that goal regulation is not merely a cognitive process but one shaped by sociopolitical and institutional conditions. Using an illustrative case study of youth in the Bronx, grounded in both ethnographic engagement and lived experience, we show how students navigate systemic barriers with cultural resilience, critical consciousness, and community care. Rather than internalizing dominant narratives that delegitimize their identities, these students enact epistemic resistance by reimagining success on their own terms. This work extends existing models by offering a culturally grounded alternative, the Liberatory Motivation Framework, that centers race, power, and agency as essential to understanding self-regulation and educational success.
