Teacher interactional justice and sense of belonging to school: examining the role of students’ socioeconomic status
摘要
Teacher justice plays an important role in students’ learning and social outcomes and in the development of a high-quality teacher-student relationship. The present preregistered study aimed to contribute to the growing literature on teacher justice perceptions, with a focus on its interactional component. Teacher interactional justice was examined in association with students’ socioeconomic status (SES) and their sense of belonging to school. We expected to observe a negative link between interactional justice and student SES, with the lower the students’ SES, the higher their perception of interactional justice in the classroom. Moreover, we expected the association between teacher interactional justice and sense of belonging to school to be moderated by students’ SES, with a stronger positive association for low than for high SES students. A total of 529 (264 females, Mage = 12.61, SDage = 1.01) sixth- to ninth-grade students nested in 26 classrooms of two middle schools participated. Linear mixed effect models revealed that teacher interactional justice was negatively associated with students’ SES. However, the expected moderation effect by students’ SES was not observed. In addition, exploring the link with an observational measure of classroom climate, supplementary analyses revealed that teacher interactional justice was associated with positive climate and teacher sensitivity dimensions, providing evidences of its relevance to be considered as a full dimension of teacher social support. Implications for educational psychology and SES, along with limitations, are discussed.