Perceived Teachers’ Justice and Perceived Teachers’ Authority

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The presented study discusses the issues of teacher’s authority, its building and maintaining in the context of teacher’s justice. The main question to be answered is how high school students perceive teachers as authorities in relation with their perception of teacher’s justice. Purpose: The aim of the present article is the identification of the relationship between perceived teachers’ justice and perceived teachers’ authority among Slovak high school students. Methods: 159 Slovak high school students (120 males and 39 females) have participated in our study. Their average age was 17.2 years. The students have attended 3 kinds of high school - technical (49.7%), services (31.4%), and general (18.9%). Two questionnaires were administrated - Teacher Justice Scale (Dalbert & Maes, 2002) and Measurement for Omnisicient Authority Beliefs (Zhou, 2007). Data were examined by Pearson correlation, t-test and ANOVA. Results: The results have shown the significant positive relationship between perceived teachers’ justice and perceived teachers’ authority. No gender differences were identified. There are significant differences in general perceived teacher’s authority among secondary school students depending on their specialization - technical, services and grammar. Discussion: Results of the study support previous findings of Cseri (2013) and Gavora (2007) who point out the importance of teachers’ justice in building positive learning environment that support students’motivation to learn. Limitations: The proportion of male and female participants was not equal. Also the proportion of participants divided by school specialization was not equal. Conclusion: Accessing students fairly is not an easy task for any teacher, since perception of oneself as righteous may differ greatly from the perception of this apparent righteousness by individual students, who naturally dispose interindividual differences. It is extremely important that teachers pay attention to this fact not only at secondary schools but at all levels of the educational system, which is one of the basic pillars of public administration.