Sense of justice in school and social and institutional trust

Based on the notion that trust is an essential feature in the development and maintenance of democratic civil society, and that school is central to the daily life of students who view schooling as critical to their long-term life chances, the author investigates in this study the relationship between students' sense of justice in school and their social and institutional trust. Sense of Justice, defined as the relationship between one's actual reward and his/her deserved reward, is reflected in three interrelated but distinct categories: instrumental, relational and procedural. The study was carried out in Israel among over 5000 middle school students in a national sample of 48 public schools. Findings basically support our hypothesis that students, who feel that they were treated fairly by their teachers, will be more trustful. However, these relationships are differential in the comparison of students in three school's sectors: Jewish general, Jewish religious, and Arab.