Educational Justice from the Perspective of Postgraduate Students in a Medical School in Iran: A Qualitative Study

Background: One of the important indicators of development of human societies is justice, which also encompasses the notion of educational justice as one of its most important components. This study aimed to explore a new perspective of the concept of educational justice and its dimensions from the viewpoint of postgraduate students.

Methods: This qualitative investigation was conducted through conventional content analysis. Participants of the study, postgraduate students at a medical school, were selected from among male and female students using purposive sampling. Data collection was performed in focus groups based on the general question, “What is your understanding of the concept of educational justice and injustice?” Content analysis was used for data extraction and data analysis.

Results: A total of 20 PhD students participated in four focus groups in this research. The concepts that emerged were categorized into three major themes, nine categories, and four subcategories. “Just education” consisted of five categories: efficient curriculum, learner development, just behavior of instructors, fair assessment, and just environment. Four subcategories: competent instructor, efficient instructor recruitment, creating learning opportunities, and professionalism were included under the category of just behavior of instructors. Other categories including research supervision ability and student research funding, which fell under the main theme of fair research, and finally the theme of just management of resources included two categories, fair distribution of facilities and fair allocation of financial resources.

Conclusion: This study’s findings depict the importance and necessity of efficient curriculum, learner development, justice of professor, justice of base research and fair management of resources.