Self-Regulated Learning

This book has received the AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award 2013. Self-regulated learning (SRL) is defined as the strategic pursuit of academic goals that involves the control over thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. This notion is taken for granted as a form of empowerment and as a form of engagement that good teachers will foster. This book is about exploring different sides to this story. It first proposes a framework for critically examining dominant and taken-for-granted ideas in educational psychology, then applies that framework to the examination of SRL to show how it endorses middle-class conventions, aligns with neoliberal logic, and renders individuals subordinate to oppressive educational structures. The book is a critique that is not necessarily intended to lead to the rejection of SRL, but rather to invite teachers, researchers, and policymakers to reflect on the possible consequences and ethics of taking up the aim to institutionalize SRL.

Stephen Vassallo received his PhD in educational psychology and educational technology from Michigan State University and is currently Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at American University in Washington, D.C. He has focused on merging interdisciplinary perspectives to critically explore ignored tensions in the literature on self-regulated learning. Vassallo has published in Educational Studies, New Ideas in Psychology, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, and Studies in the Philosophy of Education.