Motivating Business Students for Civic Education: Design Principles for Aligning Civic Engagement Programs with Student Motivation

Civic education aims to prepare students as responsible, engaged citizens, yet its integration into business education presents unique challenges. Business students often exhibit lower prosocial and civic motivations compared to peers in other disciplines, raising questions about how to design effective civic education for this population. This study examines business students’ educational motivations and their responses to civic education initiatives at a large Dutch university, using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the framework of instrumental and substantive rationality. Through focus group discussions, we explore how business students’ careerist orientations shape their engagement with civic education, identifying themes of careerism, autonomy, and practical learning. Our findings highlight the potential of leveraging instrumental motivations, such as career advancement, as entry points for fostering intrinsic motivation and prosocial orientations. We propose that aligning civic education with students’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness can gradually transform extrinsic motivations into more substantive, ethically driven engagement. These insights contribute to SDT by integrating the dual rationalities framework, offering theoretical and practical guidance for designing civic education that balances career relevance with societal responsibility. This study provides actionable design principles for curriculum designers and a foundation for future research into the motivational dynamics of civic education in business schools.