Potentially Understanding Student Priorities Through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

by

Tony M. Emetu, DM, MBA

I was taking an evening walk between the trees along the greenway with meditation music playing softly in the background through my earbuds. As I walked, and in usual fashion, I allowed my mind to drift where it may, considering the events of the day and those that are still pending in the days to come. Then, out of nowhere, an intriguing notion captured my attention as it floated across my mind in the form of a question; Can Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs be used to better understand the importance of assisting college students in attaining unrelated requirements prior to achieving academic success?

When I was a novice instructor ten years ago, a mistake that I commonly made was focusing on only the academic side of student achievement. That is to say, I naively believed my job was to support learning as it related to the curricula but nothing else. After all, this approach had been my experience as a student, and college faculty typically mimic the teaching styles they experience as students (Oleson et al., 2014). Additionally, such mistakes are often typical for novice faculty because limited experiences force them to depend on superficial understanding rather than underlining causes of classroom matters (Muir et al., 2008; Voss et al., 1991). But, as I grew in the teaching role and research, I realized that many barriers to student success are not academic in nature (Emetu, 2022). Rather, Kalsner (1991) suggested that most college dropouts are in good academic standings at the time of withdrawal. Moreover, social adaptation into the institutional environment is essential to retention and often serves as a prerequisite for academic success (Emetu, 2022; Rendón, 1994, 2002; Rendón et al., 2000; Rendón-Linares & Muñoz, 2011; Tinto, 1975, 1988, 1993).

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs claimed that people will seek physiological needs (e.g. food, shelter, clothing, etc.), safety needs (e.g. personal security, employment, health, etc.), and love and belonging (e.g. friendship, family, sense of connection, etc.) prior to pursuing esteem (e.g. respect, self-esteem, recognition, status, etc.) and self-actualization (e.g. becoming the best one can be). An illustration of this theory is provided below:

 If this theory holds true, one may wonder if the question becomes: where does education fall in this spectrum, at least for some students? Though education can logically be viewed as a pathway to fulfilling physiological and safety needs, it typically does not meet these requirements in the interim while students pursue their degrees. If such is the case, one may ask: how are students fulfilling these needs in the meantime, and do those methods take precedence over their pursuit of education? Hypothetically, let’s suppose that education does not fulfill immediate needs in the bottom three levels for some students. Under such circumstances, education could fall in the category of “Esteem”. If so, ongoing efforts to complete a degree may potentially be the fourth priority for some students, which might greatly impact their motivation in the classroom and thus academic performance. Even on the high school level, Hutchinson (2011) noted that some students struggle to focus on academic achievement due to responsibilities to help support their household outside of school, and this sentiment have been found to be relevant for some students enrolled in higher education as well (Travers, 2016; Wood, 2013). Moreover, this possibility could be one of the main reasons that supporting students both socially as well as academically is so important. If so, it is critical that college faculty consider these needs and continuously partner with various support services to help students remedy them in addition to being academically focused.  

 Providing Context

Though this potential connection is intriguing, context must be provided. First, the thought itself is about as spontaneous as this article. The author has not conducted a literature review related to this topic or checked for empirical research that may have already assessed this hypothesis. Nor has he evaluated it with an empirical study of his own. Secondly, though Maslow’s theory has been quite a popular one for many years, there have been some researchers to challenge it. For example, the ERG theory proposes a condensed version of Maslow’s theory in which there are only three levels; existence, relatedness, and growth (Alderfer, 1969; Arnolds & Boshoff, 2002; Dewey, 2020). Perhaps, one of the most significant ways in which the ERG theory differs from Maslow’s theory is that the ERG theory does not require one level to serve as a prerequisite for another level. This aspect is unlike Maslow’s theory in which one is expected to seek physiological needs prior to pursuing safety ones, for example. So, this article is not meant to present empirical findings but provoke further thought. The production of this piece was meant to serve two additional purposes. First, by writing his thoughts, the author was forced to think on and develop them further, making a connection with long-term memory and prior knowledge as part of the learning process (Gredler, 2009; Ormrod, 2020). Secondly, it allowed the author to share thoughts that may have potential merit and hopefully aid other institutional agents collectively as we continue to think about ways to serve a common cause, which is promoting the success of students and the furtherance of learning and education.

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