A study regarding the effect of a belief in school meritocracy in a system justification belief and teacher social justice advocacy: focusing on elementary school teachers born in the 1990s

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to ascertain how the belief in school meritocracy (BSM) of teachers relates to their system justification belief (SJB), and how it affects teacher social justice advocacy, focusing on elementary school teachers born in the 1990s. Methods: This study surveyed 406 elementary school teachers working in ten cities nationwide. Multiple regression was utilized to analyze which factors affect BSM and SJB. Multiple mediation analysis was then conducted to confirm the mediating effect of SJB between BSM and teacher social justice advocacy. Results: The results of the analyses would appear to indicate that the higher the degree of the BSM of a teacher is, the higher the degree of the SJB is. On the other hand, the BSM of the teachers born in the 90s was formed regardless of their personal characteristics, while the BSM of the teachers of other ages was mainly influenced by political orientation. Lastly, the BSM of the teachers of other ages had an indirect effect of reducing teachers' social justice advocacy (TSJA) mediated by economic system justification. In contrast, the BSM of teachers born in the 90s directly promoted teacher social justice advocacy, and there was no indirect effect through the SJB. Conclusion: The findings show that the BSM, which is believed to serve as a principle of education fairness, is associated with system justification that rationalizes status quo. On the other hand, the finding that the BSM of the teachers born in 90s increased the TSJA implies that the BSM does not always lead to the result of legitimizing an unfair social structure even though the BSM connects to a system justification motive. Therefore, It is argued that, by discerning what meritocratic assumption teachers are supporting as their educational belief, their BSM could work as norms not for inegalitarian structure, but for advocating just education.