Motivational mechanism underlying parents’ curricular orientation in preschool education: Insights from expectancy-value theory

The decisions parents make regarding the types of content areas they prioritize in their child’s education are influenced by deeper motivational factors that are rooted in their own expectations and values. Guided by expectancy-value theory, this cross-sectional study identified latent profiles of parents’ orientations toward eight preschool curriculum content areas and examined whether motivational beliefs predicted cumulative and individual content areas preferences within each profile. Data were collected from 1307 parents of preschool children in Türkiye. Parents ranked the curriculum content areas and reported their interest, utility value, attainment value, and self-efficacy beliefs concerning these areas. Latent class analysis revealed four distinct orientations reflecting literacy-social, balanced-academic, aesthetic-motor, and STEM-related priorities. Subsequent analyses showed that the motivational basis of parents’ preferences varied across profiles and curriculum areas. Motivational beliefs also operated differently for cumulative and individual preferences, with some associations emerging only when curriculum content areas were examined separately. Overall, the findings indicate that parents do not constitute a homogeneous group in their expectations of the preschool curriculum. Instead, their preferences reflect distinct educational orientations and profile-specific motivational patterns. A person-centered approach therefore provides a more nuanced understanding of parental curriculum priorities than analyses based solely on overall tendencies.