School sanctions and students’ feelings of injustice. The influence of context and the paradoxical effect of a popular origin

The purpose of this article is to study the links between school sanctions and students’ feelings of injustice. These links were examined on the basis of a questionnaire survey of 1,651 middle school students enrolled in seventh and ninth grades in nine schools with a diverse social profile. The statistical analyses carried out show that contextual variables (frequency and severity of school sanctions, parental protests and social mix of the school) are essential in explaining most of the students’ feelings of injustice and that, on the other hand, the individual characteristics of the latter, on the other hand, have little explanatory power or unexpected effects given the research on the school experience. This observation allows for regulatory and pedagogical considerations concerning the construction of school order.