The Impact Of Organizational Justice On Teacher Professional Learning

Along with advancing global efforts in education reform,teacher professional learning(TPL)has become a focus of Chinese education policy,and is deemed conducive to educational quality,school improvement,and students’ academic achievement.In addition,it is of great significance to encourage self-directed and continuous TPL in the context of this round of curriculum reform in China.However,TPL is not spontaneous,as its occurrences are correlated to not only complex teaching environments but also culture,social structure,economy,politics and other factors.Studies have shown that teachers compare their salary and treatment in the educational organization to their colleagues,so as to understand whether the organization’s distribution is fair,which will affect their job satisfaction.A teacher with higher job satisfaction is more willing to invest time and energy in teaching to improve their teaching capability.In other words,the issue of justice causes the issue of teachers’ perceptions of organizational justice,which has an impact on teachers’ work behavior,whereas the conclusion is provided by studies mainly set in foreign contexts.In China,although many studies have paid attention to the impact on TPL of school working environments,school learning atmosphere and other organizational factors,studies on TPL from the perspective of organizational justice are rare.Therefore,this study aims to explore the relationship between organizational justice and professional learning of primary school teachers in the context of the Chinese characteristic collectivism,so as to propose targeted policy suggestions on the improvement and remodeling of TPL in China.In this study,data of a total of 306 public primary school teachers from eastern China were collected for multiple linear regression analysis to explore the impact of organizational justice on TPL,and for structural equation modeling to verify the mediating role of job satisfaction.The results indicated that,first,the general level of TPL in this area is high,and teachers are satisfied with their work.As for teachers’ perceptions of organizational justice,their evaluation of distribution justice is lower than that of procedural justice and interactive justice.Second,organizational justice has a positive impact on TPL,and various aspects of organizational justice,such as distribution justice,procedural justice and interactive justice,are positively correlated to TPL.Analysis based on Social Cognition Theory and Social Exchange Theory also indicated that the higher degree of justice teachers have perceived from their school organization,the more they will promote their exchange behavior with schools or the society,such as TPL.Third,job satisfaction plays an mediating role with regard to organizational justice and TPL,that is,teachers’ perceptions of organizational justice will affect teachers’ job satisfaction and consequently affect their professional learning.This exchange process proceeds along the logical path of ‘perception —attitude — behavior’,which also validates that teachers’ cognition,behavior and school environments are influenced by each other,forming a three-way interaction decision system.Based on the above-mentioned findings,this study proposed policy suggestions on improving TPL: first,to create a sharing platform by optimizing distribution policy;second,to promote teachers’ participation and achieve procedural justice;third,to respect teachers’ labor and establish support systems to encourage professional learning of primary school teachers.