A Study of Organizational Justice, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Student Achievement in High Schools.

Identifying inappropriate student behavior depends, to a great extent, on the perceptions of individual teachers. Those perceptions also influence what, if any, action the teachers take in response to various behaviors. Research on teacher perceptions of behavior has been conducted in both middle level schools (e.g., Axup & Gersch, 2008; Green, Shriberg, & Farber, 2008), and high schools (e.g., Houghton, Wheldall, & Merrett, 1988; Johnson & Fullwood, 2006; LeBlanc, Swisher, Vitaro, & Tremblay, 2007; Little, 2005; Ritter, 1989; Watt, 2003). Studies examining secondary school teachers' perceptions of behavior reveal that those behaviors that they perceived as most troublesome and frequent included talking out of turn, hindering others, and idleness (Houghton et al., 1988; Little, 2005). Research also suggests factors that might influence teachers' perceptions. For instance, they perceived the behaviors exhibited by males as more problematic than that of females (Little, 2005; Ritter, 1989).Female teachers sometimes perceived certain behavior problems to be more severe than male teachers did (Floughton et al, 1988; Ritter, 1989), although teacher gender did not seem to be a factor in other studies Oohnson & Fullwood, 2006). Secondary school teachers who taught elective courses did not perceive behavior problems to be as severe as those who taught required courses Oohnson & Fullwood, 2006).A number of studies have been conducted to explore teacher perceptions within religious affiliated high schools. Romi (2004) found that behaviors such as disrupting class, lateness and absences, and non-participation were perceived as more severe by participants in religious schools as compared to those in secular schools. Teachers in the secular schools only perceived behaviors in the category of eating/drinking in class as more severe (Romi, 2004).Some studies have examined the types of behavior problems that actually occurred in Catholic secondary schools. In a study of seven such schools, Bryk et al. (1993) did not observe any incidences of disruptive behavior. Their observations supported responses teachers made on a questionnaire. Behaviors such as verbal or physical abuse of students, absences or tardiness, fights, use of drugs and alcohol, and teasing of other students were reported by less than 5% of the teachers. Other behaviors that less than 15% of teachers reported included: students not doing their homework and other infractions that were considered to be minor in nature (Bryk et al., 1993). The researchers pointed out that the findings from their study were consistent with the findings from a previous study, High School and Beyond, that found behavior problems occurred less often in Catholic high schools compared to public high schools (as cited in Bryk et al., 1993).Although some studies have been conducted, research is limited concerning either teacher perceptions of behavior problems that are exhibited in Catholic secondary schools or teacher responses toward such behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how secondary Catholic school teachers perceive and respond to problem behavior exhibited by students. In particular, this study sought to answer the following research questions:1. How are students' behavior challenges/problems perceived by teachers at Catholic secondary schools?2. How do teachers at Catholic secondary schools respond to students' behavior challenges/problems?For purposes of this study, behavior challenges/problems were defined as any observable action (Alberto & Troutman, 2006) exhibited by an individual that interferes or impedes with the academic learning of others (p. 12). This definition can include behaviors such as: talking without permission, arguing with the teacher, and not completing homework as well as physical and verbal violence towards others (Romi, 2004).MethodA qualitative research design was used for this study because it allows "researchers to get at the inner experience of participants, to determine how meanings are formed through and in culture. …