"You can't oppress yourself": Negotiating the meaning of opportunity in post-apartheid South Africa

This investigation examined how black South African adolescents conceptuali zed their outlooks on the past and future, taking into account their intrap ersonal, interpersonal, and social-historical perspectives. This paper repo rts an analysis of themes that emerged in relation to achievement issues. Q ualitative analysis of in-depth interviews showed that, despite having come of age in a society that was designed to oppress, these students were comm itted to high educational goals, determined to seize the opportunities that they perceived were now available to them, and held generally positive vie ws about their futures. Results are discussed in terms of the intersection of achievement motivation theory and cultural psychology.