Perceptions of instructor injustice in COVID-19-imposed online courses: EFL students’ perceptions and experiences in focus

ABSTRACT

The present study explored Iranian students’ perceptions of unfair instructor behavior in COVID-19 crisis-prompted online language education. Through an online open-ended questionnaire, 91 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students reported their beliefs and experiences concerning instructor injustice in online classes. Results indicated that about two-thirds of the students considered the nature of online courses, particularly their impact on student-instructor relational communication and favoritism, to be a factor leading to teacher unjust behavior. They also identified technological factors, including students’ online communication anxiety, as barriers. Consistent with research in face-to-face courses, students most frequently reported experiencing instructor procedural injustice, which mostly violated the bias suppression principle, followed by distributive injustice, which primarily violated equity and equality principles, then interactional injustice, which mainly violated the sufficiency/justification principle, suggesting informational justice may be especially important in online courses. Implications for theoretical development of communication and fairness are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• instructional communication
• classroom justice
• teacher-student relationships
• power in the classroom
• fairness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Because the four domains have a “dynamic relationship” with each other (Rasooli et al., 2018, p. 164) and there is “interplay” among them (Rasooli et al., 2019, p. 705), the same subdomains tend to occur across domains. For instance, the subdomain of teacher feedback can be found in the learning and teaching domains. Thus, these data were coded based on the subdomains, understanding that the subdomains occur in the assessment, teaching, learning, and/or interaction domains. This approach is consistent with prior research (e.g., Estaji & Zhaleh, 2022).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca M. Chory

Rebecca M. Chory (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is a Professor of Management at Frostburg State University and a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Budapest, Hungary. Her research focuses on personal workplace relationships, particularly workplace romances and workplace friendships, classroom and organizational justice, and antisocial organizational and instructional behavior. She has published manuscripts in Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Management Education, International Journal of Business Communication, Communication Education, Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, and Communication Quarterly, among others.

Kiyana Zhaleh

Kiyana Zhaleh (Ph.D., Allameh Tabataba’i University) has been a lecturer at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Khatam University, Sharif University of Technology, Gonbad Kavous University, and Golestan University, Iran for the past three years. She has published papers in TESL-EJ, Current Psychology, Language Related Research, Polish Psychological Bulletin, and Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics. Her research interests lie mainly in the areas of Teacher Education, Educational Psychology, and Social Psychology of Justice.

Masoomeh Estaji

Masoomeh Estaji (Ph.D., Allameh Tabataba’i University) is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Allameh Tabataba’i University. She has presented and published numerous papers on methodology, testing, and second language acquisition (SLA) in Educational Assessment, Language Learning in Higher Education, Reading Psychology, English as an International Language, The Asian ESP, Asia TEFL, and Classroom Interaction. Her research interests include language testing and assessment, ESP, and teacher education.