Sense of justice in school and civic behavior

Self-reported academic performance and academic cheating: Exploring the role of the perceived classroom (in)justice mediators

BACKGROUND

As a point of departure, this study assumes that teaching to impart knowledge is inseparable from its moral role to create an ethical citizenry, such as developing standards of academic integrity.

AIMS

The study aims at delving into how different facets of the sense of (in)justice in the classroom may play a significant role in explaining cheating behaviour, in general, and among low-achieving students, in particular.

SAMPLE AND METHODS

The study was conducted among 5,084 eighth and ninth graders Israeli students. CFA and a structural modelling equations method were used to examine the study's factorial constructs and model, respectively.

RESULTS

Findings pointed to a good fit of the measurement model using SEM. In accordance with the mediating hypothesis, self-reported academic achievement was negatively related to self-reported academic cheating. Moreover, perceived 'school injustice' (procedural and distributive justice as estimates) played a mediating role in explaining the relation between academic performance and cheating behaviour. It is noteworthy, however, that the facet of the personality-like construct of justice sensitivity displayed inconsistent findings and no mediating effect when examined as a separate model.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-reported academic performance and academic cheating among middle school' students were explained more strongly by contextual justice-related factors, namely perceived teachers' distributional and procedural practices in the classroom, than by justice sensitivity, which is a personality factor. Thus, teachers' justice practices seem to be crucial for developing a predisposition to academic honesty.

That's not fair! The effects of teacher justice and academic achievement on Self and Other's resistant agency

BACKGROUND

Notwithstanding the emphasis on the idea that students should be actively and accountably engaged in their educational pathways, little research has investigated learners' agentic behaviours that take the form of student resistance to adult authority.

AIMS

This paper presents an experimental study aimed to assess whether, and to what extent, student Self and Other resistant agency depends on perceptions of teacher justice and student achievement.

METHODS

Participants were asked to read one of four scenarios concerning a generic student asking for the possibility to retake a test she/he had previously failed, with an experimental design including two levels of teacher justice × 2 levels of academic achievement. Then, they answered two items regarding the likelihood of protest on the part of the student depicted in the scenario and enforced by themselves in having to deal with a similar situation.

RESULTS

The multilevel analysis indicated a principal effect of justice and target, with resistant agency rated as more likely in the unjust condition and for the Other. The justice effect was further qualified by an interaction with the achievement level, with resistant agency higher in the unjust and low achievement condition. Finally, a three-way interaction appeared, with Self resistant agency higher in the just and high achievement condition.

CONCLUSIONS

These results are discussed in terms of their implications for teacher practices, as they emphasize the importance just learning environments have in allowing students to express their opinions as well as dissent.