‘Help, My Teacher is Pressuring Me!’ the Role of Students’ Coping with Controlling Teaching in Motivation and Engagement

Ample research has shown that a controlling teaching style is detrimental for students’ motivation and engagement in school. However, little is known about how students cope with such a teaching style. Therefore, grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the present study examines the role of four coping strategies (i.e. oppositional defiance, compulsive compliance, negotiation and accommodation) in students’ motivation and engagement. A repeated measures design with four weekly assessments was used to examine associations both at the between- and within-student level. The sample consisted of students from 4 to 6th grade (N = 433; 51