Exploring Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Educational Fairness and Reflective Experiences: A Case Study of an “Educational Philosophy and History” Course

This study explores pre-service teachers’ perceptions and reflective experiences of educational fairness and aims to derive educational implications for strengthening fairness-oriented teaching competencies. The study was conducted with 50 pre-service teachers enrolled in an “Educational Philosophy and History” course during the second semester of the 2025 academic year. A reflection-based learning activity was implemented, including a survey, reflective activities, group discussions, and reflective essays. Using a mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected through a modified version of the Secondary School Educational Fairness Scale adapted to a retrospective context to analyze levels of fairness perception, while qualitative data from open-ended responses and reflective essays were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. The results showed that more than half of the participants had not previously encountered the concept of educational fairness and primarily understood it in terms of equal opportunities and the absence of discrimination. Based on recollections of secondary school experiences, procedural fairness was perceived most strongly, whereas distributive and interactional fairness were perceived at relatively lower levels. Qualitative reflections indicated that pre-service teachers tended to interpret educational unfairness in relation to teachers’ instructional practices, assessment methods, and relational interactions rather than institutional structures themselves. To realize fair education, they emphasized the need for equity-based support, transparent assessment criteria and procedures, the practice of relational fairness, and expanded student participation. These findings demonstrate that pre-service teachers distinguish between institutional fairness and practical fairness, suggesting that reflection-based educational fairness instruction should be addressed as an important component of pre-service teacher education.