Abstract
This paper examines the process of reward allocation in schools and students' perception of injustice therein. Assuming that both reward distribution and the evaluation of its fairness occur within, and are affected by, the educational context (schools and classrooms), this investigation focuses on the effect of classroom composition on perceptions of deprivation – the gap between the actual reward and the one to which the individual judges himself or herself entitled. The possibility that class composition is a referential structure influencing both actual reward allocation and the determination of entitlement is discussed and investigated empirically in a sample of over 9,000 Israeli junior high students with regard to two academic rewards: grades and ability group placement. The findings suggest that class composition does serve as such a comparison referent and thus affects the perception of deprivation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, James S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2). New York: Academic Press, pp. 267–297.
Amir, Yehuda & Sharan, Shlomo (Eds.). (1984). School desegregation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Barr, Rebecca & Dreeben, Robert (1983). How schools work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bassis, Michael S. (1977). The campus as a frog-pond: A theoretical and empirical reassessment. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 1318–1326.
Berger, Joseph, Zelditch, Morris Jr., Anderson, Bo, & Cohen, Bernard P. (1972). Structural aspects of distributive justice: A status-value formation. In Joseph Berger, Morris Zelditch, & Bo Anderson (Eds.), Sociological theories in progress, (Vol. 2). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 119–246.
Bryk, Anthony S. & Raudenbush, Stephan W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Application and data analysis methods. Newbury Park: Sage.
Cook, T. D., Crosby, Fay, & Hannigan, K. M. (1977). The construct validity of relativedeprivation. In Jerry M. Suls & Robert L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Washington, DC: Hemisphere, pp. 307–333.
Crosby, Fay (1976). A model of egotistical relative deprivation. Psychological Review, 83, 85–113.
Crosby, Fay (1982). Relative deprivation and working women. New York: Oxford University Press.
Crosby, Fay (1984). Relative deprivation in organizational settings. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research on organizational behavior (Vol. 6). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 51–93.
Dar, Yehezkel & Resh, Nura (1986). Classroom composition and pupil achievement. London: Gordon & Breach.
Dar, Yehezkel & Resh, Nura (1993). Exploring the multi-dimensional structure of deprivation among Israeli adolescents. Megamot, 35, 38–61 (Hebrew).
Dar, Yehezkel & Resh, Nura (1994). Separating and mixing students for learning: Concepts and research. Pedagogisch Tijdschrift, 19, 109–126.
Dar, Yehezkel & Resh, Nura (1996). Exploring the persistence of academic achievement gaps: Social differentials in family resource returns in Israel. In Aaron Pallas (Ed.), Research in sociology of education and socialization (Vol. 11). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 233–261.
Dar, Yehezkel, Resh, Nura, & Erhard, Rachel (1989). Academic achievement in junior high schools in reading comprehension and science. Jerusalem: NCJW Research Institute, School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Hebrew).
Dauber, Susan, Alexander, Karl L., & Entwisle, Doris (1996). Tracking and transition through middle grades: Channeling educational trajectories. Sociology of Education, 69, 290–307.
Davis, James A. (1959). A formal interpretation of the theory of relative deprivation. Sociometry, 22, 280–296.
Davis, James A. (1966). The campus as a frog-pond: An application of the theory of relative deprivation to career decisions of college men. American Journal of Sociology, 72, 17–31.
DeMaggio, Paul (1982). Cultural capital and school success. American Sociological Review, 47, 189–201.
Deutsch, Morton (1975). Equity, equality and need: What determines which value willbe used as the basis of distributive justice? Journal of Social Issues, 31, 137–149.
Deutsch, Morton (1985). Distributive justice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Deutsch, Morton, & Steil, Janice M. (1988). Awakening the sense of injustice. Social Justice Research, 2, 3–23.
Educational Testing Service (1997). The ETS gender study: How females and males perform in educational settings. Princeton, NJ: Author.
Festinger, Leon (1954). A theory of social comparison process. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.
Gamoran, Adam (1986). Instructional and institutional effects of ability grouping. Sociology of Education, 59, 185–198.
Gartrell, David C. (1987). Network approach to social evaluation. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 49–66.
Goethals, G. R. & Darley, J. (1977). Social comparison theory: An attributional approach. In Jerry M. Suls & Robert L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Washington, DC: Hemisphere, pp. 259–278.
Goodman, Paul (1974). An examination of referents used in the evaluation of pay. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 12, 170–195.
Guimond, Serge & Dube-Simard, Lise (1983). Relative deprivation theory and the Quebec Nationalist Movement: The cognition-emotion distinction and the personal-group deprivation issue. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 526–535.
Gurr, Ted R. (1970). Why men rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hallinan, Maureen & Sorensen, Aage B. (1983). The formation and stability of instructional groups. American Sociological Review, 48, 838–851.
Hammer, Eliot R. (1989). Conditions of perceived inequity and relative deprivation: On the needed research before the “merger” can occur. International Review of Modern Sociology, 19, 81–108.
Hartman, Moshe (1979). Prestige grading of occupations with sociologists as judges. Quality and Quantity, 13, 1–19.
Jackson, Linda A. (1989). Relative deprivation and the gender wage gap. Journal of Social Issues, 45, 117–133.
Jasso, Guillermina (1980). A new theory of distributive justice. American Sociological Review, 45, 3–32.
Jasso, Guillermina (1989). The theory of distributive justice force in human affairs: Analyzing the three central questions. In Joseph Berger, Morris Zelditch, & Bo Anderson (Eds.), Sociological theories in progress: New formulations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 354–387.
Jasso, Guillermina (1990). Methods for the theoretical and empirical analysis of comparison processes. In C. C. Clogg (Ed.), Sociological methodology. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, pp. 369–419.
Jasso, Guillermina (1993). Building the theory of comparison processes: Construction of postulates and derivation of predictions. In Joseph Berger & Morris Zelditch (Eds.) Theoretical research in progress. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 213–264.
Jasso, Guillermina (1994). Assessing the individual and group differences in the senseof justice: Framework and application to gender differences in the justice of earnings. Social Science Research, 23, 368–406.
Jasso, Guillermina (1996). Exploring the reciprocal relations between theoretical andempirical work. Sociological Methods and Research, 24, 253–303.
Jasso, Guillermina & Webster, Murray (1997). Double standards in just earning for male and female workers. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60, 66–78.
Kelley, Herold H. (1952). Two functions of reference groups. In G. Swanson, T. M. Newcomb, & E. L. Hartley (Eds.), Reading in social psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, pp. 410–424.
Kfir, Drora (1988). Achievement and aspirations among boys and girls in high school: A comparison of two Israeli ethnic groups. American Educational Research Journal, 25, 213–236.
Klein, Ze'ev & Yochanan, Eshel (1980). Integrating Jerusalem schools. New York: Academic Press.
Kubitchek, Warren N. & Hallinan, Maureen (1996). Race, gender and inequality in track assignment. In Aaron Pallas (Ed.), Research in sociology of education and socialization. New York: JAI Press, pp. 121–146.
Lareau, Annette (1989). Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in elementary education. London: Palmer Press.
Lerner, Melvin J. (1987). Integrating societal and psychological rules of entitlement. Social Justice Research, 1, 107–125.
Levine, John M. & Moreland, Richard L. (1987). Social comparison and outcome evaluation in group contexts. In J. C. Masters & W. P. Smith (Eds.), Social comparison, social justice and relative deprivation. Hillside NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Major, Brenda (1989). Gender differences in comparisons and entitlement: Implications for comparable worth. Journal of Social Issues, 45, 99–115.
Major, Brenda (1993). Gender, entitlement, and the distribution of family labor. Journal of Social Issues, 49, 141–159.
Major, Brenda & Deaux, Kay (1982). Individual differences in justice behavior. In J. Greenberg & R. L. Cohen (Eds.), Equity and justice in social behavior. New York: Academic Press, pp. 43–76.
Markovsky, Barry (1985). Toward a multilevel distributive justice theory. American Sociological Review, 50, 822–839.
Martin, Joanne (1981). Relative deprivation: A theory of distributive injustice for anera of shrinking resources. Research in Organizational Behavior, 3, 53–107.
Masters, John C. & Smith, William P. (Eds.). (1987). Social comparison, social justice and relative deprivation. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
McDill, Edward L. & Rigsby, L. C. (1973). Structure and process in secondary schools: The academic impact of school climates. Baltimore: John Hopkins University.
Merton, Robert K. (1957). Social theory and social structure. New York: Free Press.
Merton, Robert K. & Kitt, A. S. (1950). Contribution to the theory of reference group behavior. In R. K. Merton & P. F. Lazarsfeld (Eds.), Continuities in social research. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, pp. 40–105.
Moore, Daliah (1991). Entitlement and justice evaluations: Who should get more and why? Social Psychology Quarterly, 54, 45–64.
Moore, Daliah (1994). Entitlement as an epistemic problem: Do women think like men? Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 9, 665–684.
Oakes, Jeannie (1985). Keeping tracks: How schools structure inequality. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Oakes, Jeannie, Gamoran, Adam, & Page, Reba N. (1992). Curriculum differentiation: Opportunities, outcomes and meanings. In P. W. Jackson (Ed.), Handbook of research in curriculum. New York: Macmillan, pp. 570–609.
Oakes, Jeannie & Guiton, Gretchen (1995). Matchmaking: The dynamics of high school tracking decisions. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 3–33.
Peterson, Penelope L., Wilkinson, Louis C., & Hallinan, Maureen T. (1984). The social context of instruction: Group organization and group processes. New York: Academic Press.
Petta, Gabrielle & Walker, Iain (1992). Relative deprivation and ethnic identity. British Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 285–293.
Raudenbush, Stephan W., & Bryk, Anthony (1986). A hierarchical model for studying school effects. Sociology of Education, 59, 1–17.
Raudenbush, Stephan W. & Willms, Douglas (1991). Schools, classrooms and pupils: International studies of schooling from a multilevel perspective. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Resh, Nura (1989). High school track placement in Israeli secular versus religioussectors. Megamot, 32, 58–74 (Hebrew).
Resh, Nura (1998). Track placement: How the sorting machine works in Israel. American Journal of Education, 106, 416–438.
Resh, Nura & Dar, Yehezkel (1992). Learning segregation in junior high schools in Israel: Causes and consequences. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 3, 272–292.
Resh, Nura & Dar, Yehezkel (1996). Segregation within integration in Israeli junior high schools. Israel Social Science Research, 11, 1–22.
Runciman, Walter G. (1966). Relative deprivation and social justice. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Singer, Eleanor (1981). Reference groups and social evaluations. In M. Rosenberg & R. H. Turner (Eds.), Social psychology: Sociological perspectives. New York: Basic Books, pp. 66–93.
Schwarzwald, Joseph & Fridel-Cohen, Sara (1984). Social acceptance in the heterogeneous classroom: Its relation to ethnic origin and academic status. Megamot, 28, 404–424. (Hebrew).
Spady, William, G. (1973). The impact of school resources on students. In F. N. Kerlinger (Ed.), Review of research in education (Vol. 1). Itasca, IL: Peacock, pp. 135–177.
Suls, Jerry M. & Miller, Robert L. (Eds.). (1977). Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Suls, Jerry M. & Wills, Thomas A. (Eds.). (1991). Social comparison: Contemporary theory and research. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Vanfossen, Beth E., Jones, James D., & Spade, Joan Z. (1987). Curriculum trackingand status maintenance. Sociology of Education, 43, 355–376.
Willms, Douglas (1986). Social class segregation and its relationship to pupils' examination results in Scotland. American Sociological Review, 51, 224–241.
Willms, Douglas & Chen, Michael (1989). The effect of ability grouping on the ethnicachievement gap in Israeli elementary schools. American Journal of Education, 97, 237–257.
Yogev, Avraham (1981). Determinants of early educational career in Israel: Further evidence for the sponsorship thesis. Sociology of Education, 54, 181–194.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Resh, N. Injustice in Schools: Perception of Deprivation and Classroom Composition. Social Psychology of Education 3, 103–126 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009675715255
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009675715255