Teacher Justice and Students’ Class Identification: Belief in a Just World and Teacher–Student Relationship as Mediators

Abstract

For school-age adolescents, teacher justice plays an important role in their learning and social outcomes. The present study examined the relation between teacher justice and students’ class identification in 1735 Chinese school-age adolescents by considering belief in a just world (BJW) and teacher–student relationship as mediators. Structure equation modeling (SEM) was used to reveal the direct and indirect effects. The analyses showed that all the direct and indirect effects were significant. These findings indicated that teacher justice had a positive effect on students’ class identification. In addition, teacher justice impacted students’ class identification through students’ just-world belief and teacher–student relationships. These results suggested that for adolescents, teacher justice played an important role in shaping their just-world belief system and their interpersonal relationships with teachers, which in turn affected their sense of belonging and values in relation to their class. Thus, it is important for teachers to be aware that their injustice may negatively impact their relationships with students, students’ belief systems, and their psychological engagement at school. There is a need to develop teacher-training programs to help teachers to establish classroom reward-punishment systems with the consideration of social justice, to communicate with students through an unbiased approach, and to increase student participation in the important decision making of the whole class.

Victim Sensitivity and Altruistic Behavior in School: Mediating Effects of Teacher Justice and Teacher-Student Relationship

“…Each item was rated using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not true at all) to 5 (very true of me). The items were found to be reliable and valid in prior research (Jiang et al., 2018). In this study, the scale had satisfactory internal consistency ( α = 0.84).…”

“…One possible explanation for the negative association between victim sensitivity and altruistic behavior concerns teacher justice. Teacher justice is one of the most typical school justice experiences (Peter and Dalbert, 2010) because teachers not only take charge of students’ academic evaluation but also possess authority on other privileges and punishments (Jiang et al., 2018). Students form their perception of teacher justice through interactions with teachers during educational activities, which largely depend on individuals’ perception, processing, and evaluation of relevant information (Dalbert, 2001; Peter et al., 2013).…”

“…It is indicated that for students in educational contexts, victim sensitivity may serve to change the meaning of ambiguous teacher behavior, leading to lower teacher justice perceptions. Furthermore, students’ experience of teacher injustice was negatively related to their group identification (Jiang et al., 2018) and positively related to problem behaviors, such as bullying, cheating, and delinquent behavior (Donat et al., 2012, 2014), which further reduced students’ altruistic behaviors. Based on these findings, it can be argued that teacher justice is an important mediating factor for the association between victim sensitivity and altruistic behavior in school.…”

“…Teacher justice is the result of teachers implementing school norms to avoid unexpected behaviors, such as rule breaking, aggression, and bullying (Donat et al., 2012; Molinari et al., 2013). When students think their teachers treat them unjustly, they may consider themselves to be excluded and undervalued (Jiang et al., 2018), which will in turn disrupt the formation of secure relationships with their teachers. For instance, Molinari et al.…”

The Relationship between Alienation from Learning and Student Needs in Swiss Primary and Secondary Schools

“…A positive teacher-student relationship, characterized by mutual respect and recognition, cannot be established when students perceive that teachers treat them unfairly. Thus, perceived teacher injustice can also be viewed as an indicator of students' perception of the teacher-student relationship, which has been found to be a substantial factor in students' feelings of overall integration in the classroom and ultimately their sense of belongingness in the entire school environment (e. g., Donat, Umlauft, Dalbert, & Kamble, 2012;Jiang, Liu, Ding, Zhen, Sun, & Fu, 2018), or the lack thereof (Hascher & Hagenauer, 2010). Therefore, students' perception of teacher injustice is considered to be an indicator of a lack of teacherstudent relatedness.…”