Justice, belonging and trust among Israeli middle school students

Abstract

Contending that justice experiences at school transmit messages about the wider society and affects students' attitudes and behaviour, we investigated the effects of students' sense of distributive and (school) procedural justice on their sense of belonging to school and on their social and institutional trust. The study was carried out among about 5000 eighth and ninth graders in a national sample of 48 middle schools in Israel in the 2010-2011 school year. The two-level data-individual and school-were analyzed by HLM7 (Hierarchical Linear Model). Findings basically support our hypotheses: sense of distributive justice, especially, with regard to teachers'-students' relation positively affected students' sense of belonging and their trust in people and formal institutions; and school (aggregate) sense of procedural justice added to these positive effects. However, these attitudes were also dependent on sectorial affiliation (Jewish secular, Jewish religious, Arab), which explained a considerable portion of between-school variation in student attitudes.

Students’ critical incidents of fairness in classroom assessment: an empirical study

“…Students reported engagement and adaptation in fairness incidents, while they demonstrated disengagement, inaction, and dissent in cases of unfairness. These findings resonate with previous empirical studies, demonstrating that students' fairness perceptions have a positive relationship with their motivation for learning (Chory-Assad, 2002;Kazemi, 2016) and psychological and social engagement with teachers and educational institutions (Berti et al, 2010;Resh and Sabbagh, 2014), and negative relationships with students' aggression and hostility (Chory-Assad and Paulsel, 2004a). This evidence, coupled with findings of this study and previous studies (Chory et al, 2017;Horan et al, 2010;Robins and Jeffords, 2009), suggest that CA processes constitute more than 50 to 65% of un/fairness incidents in students' classroom experiences.…”

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

“…According to the group engagement model, people’s social identification with a community can be influenced by their experience of being treated justly by other people ( Tyler and Blader, 2000 , 2003 ; De Backer et al, 2011 ). In the educational context, teachers are the stakeholders in charge of reward or punishment allocation ( Resh and Sabbagh, 2014 ), and students’ experience of justice largely depends on teachers’ decisions and judgment. Thus, teacher justice in the classroom might be related to students’ class identification.…”

“…Many studies have indicated that teacher justice is a key factor that can explain variance in students’ academic performance ( Peter et al, 2012 ; Molinari et al, 2013 ), well-being ( Kamble and Dalbert, 2012 ), school engagement ( Berti et al, 2010 ; Donat et al, 2017 ), and school distress ( Peter et al, 2013 ). Researchers also found that experiencing justice was correlated with many other outcomes including school belongingness and social trust ( Gorard, 2011 ; Resh and Sabbagh, 2014 ). For example, Resh and Sabbagh (2014) investigated 5000 Israel middle school students and found that students’ experiences of both distributive justice and procedural justice at school positively correlated with their trust in people and formal institutions; also, such justice experiences explained students’ belongingness to their school.…”

“…Researchers also found that experiencing justice was correlated with many other outcomes including school belongingness and social trust ( Gorard, 2011 ; Resh and Sabbagh, 2014 ). For example, Resh and Sabbagh (2014) investigated 5000 Israel middle school students and found that students’ experiences of both distributive justice and procedural justice at school positively correlated with their trust in people and formal institutions; also, such justice experiences explained students’ belongingness to their school. These results were in line with the group engagement model that emphasized links between experienced justice and attitudes toward authorities, group cooperation, and social identification ( Tyler and Blader, 2003 ).…”

“…Few studies have considered school contexts, especially primary or secondary schools where teachers are usually considered as the authority in the classroom. This is because teachers are the main distributive agent who evaluates students’ performance and learning behavior, track their achievement and learning levels, and grant grades and certificates ( Resh and Sabbagh, 2014 ). Teachers also manage the class by establishing rules and procedures, organizing the classroom settings, maintaining appropriate student behavior, and managing problem behaviors ( Emmer et al, 2003 ).…”