Understanding Students' Classroom Justice Experiences and Responses

Abstract

The purpose of this study was threefold: to (a) identify students' experiences of distributive, procedural, and interactional injustice; (b) to examine students' emotional responses to these unjust experiences; and (c) to investigate students' behavioral reactions to perceived injustice. Participants were 138 undergraduate students who provided written narratives in response to three open-ended questions. Results revealed (a) distributive justice issues included grades, opportunities to improve grades, instructor affect, and punishment; (b) procedural justice issues included grading procedures, make-up/late policies, scheduling/workload, information for exams, feedback, instructor error, not following through with promises, class procedures, and not enforcing policies; and (c) interactional justice issues included insensitivity/rudeness, stating or implying stupidity, sexist/racist/prejudiced remarks, singling out students, accusing students of wrongdoing, and instructor affect. Students' emotional responses ranged from anger to empathy and their behavioral reactions ranged from dissent to withdrawal. Collectively, students reported procedural injustice almost three times as often as the other two types of injustice, and student emotional and behavioral responses were overwhelmingly negative. These results lend support to the validity of prior classroom justice measures, theorizing, and research.