Background: In Iran, within educational contexts, especially in justice literature and on the students' point of view, there has been little research, so that there is a significant gap in this field. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationships between college students’ perceptions of instructor credibility (competence, morality, and caring) and their perceptions of classroom justice.
Method: This study is applied in terms of purpose, and in terms of data collection is canonical correlation. The statistical population included all high school students in Urmia. 528 people were selected by stratified random sampling. Data were gathered through relative stratified sampling way by using 4 scales: Student perceptions of instructor credibility, student perceptions of classroom (justice distributive and procedural justice), interactional justice and informational justice questionnaires. Hypotheses were analyzed using Pearson correlation matrix and focal correlation.
Results: Results indicate that perceptions of instructor credibility positively predicted perceptions of classroom justice. Instructor competence, caring and morality predicted classroom justice. Specifically, instructor morality character (versus competence or caring) was the most consistent predictor of classroom justice. Also, instructor credibility was most strongly related to interactional (versus distributive and procedural) justice.
Conclusion: Teachers who want to increase students' perceptions of justice in the classroom should strive to identify students as teachers with expertise, consideration, and high ethics.