Race-reimaged autonomy support: a validation of a measure that integrates self-determination theory and culturally relevant education

• Validated a new measure: Race-Reimaged Autonomy Support (RR-ASI) • Integrated SDT and CRRE to support motivation in diverse college classrooms. • Conducted cognitive interviews to establish content validity of new scales. • Confirmed validity across two diverse college student samples. • Demonstrated incremental validity of RR-ASI over and above SDT practices. Although self-determination theory (SDT) and culturally relevant and responsive education (CRRE) each offer valuable insights for supporting student motivation, they have rarely been integrated. This study introduces and validates a measure of the Race-Reimaged Autonomy-Supportive Instruction (RR-ASI) framework, which reimages core SDT practices through a culturally grounded, justice-oriented lens. Across three studies, we validated the RR-ASI framework with racially and ethnically diverse college students. Study 1 involved cognitive interviews to establish content validity. Studies 2 and 3 used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test construct, predictive, and incremental validity. Study 3 further tested convergent and discriminant validity. Results showed that RR-ASI subscales were distinct from traditional SDT subscales, highly reliable, and significantly predicted autonomy and emotional engagement beyond traditional SDT measures. RR-ASI practices also demonstrated strong alignment with culturally relevant teaching and appropriate divergence from stereotyping and controlling instruction. Findings suggest that autonomy support must be situated within students’ cultural and sociopolitical realities to be most effective. This work provides a theoretically grounded and adaptable framework to support motivation in diverse classrooms, advancing efforts to create more inclusive and equitable learning environments.