6. Intrinsic Motivation, Agency, and Self-Efficacy: JourneyingFrom “Quasi-University” Student to Steward of the ODECommunity

This chapter portrays the author’s professional career as a researcher and gatekeeper of academic publications. It starts with a brief account of his very humble education background before going on to explain the motivation behind his lifelong interest in research and writing. It then describes how mentorship turned him into a full-fledged researcher as well as why and how he left his familiar fields of study in his prime and joined the open and distance education (ODE) research community as a green hand, eventually becoming an international gatekeeper after overcoming sustained adversities. The chapter interprets his success through the theoretical lens of intrinsic motivation, agency, and self-efficacy and concludes with tips for early-career researchers.