This article reports on two studies that aimed at the investigation of how students from elementary and secondary schools, both private and public, from the town of Presidente Prudente (SP) represent situations of injustice at school, as well as their agents and the kind of actions they take. Two sets of data were analyzed: 1) open answers to a questionnaire submitted in 1999 to 480 pupils from the 8th grade of the elementary school and the 1st grade of secondary school; the answers selected were those in which reference was made to injustice at school; 2) answers given in 2003 by students of the 5th grade of the elementary school to questions about injustice at school. The theoretical analysis was based on the approach of the Psychology of Moral Development of Piaget and Kohlberg, and on the Social Representation approach created by Moscovici. Comparing the 1999 and the 2003 studies the conclusions can be drawn that none of the school series see the school as a "just community", and that retributive and legal injustices prevail. The main agents of injustice are revealed to be teachers (against students), followed by students (against other students). Students from private schools point the teachers as the agents of injustice more often that students from public schools. The latter put first the injustices among students; they also opposed more strongly the rules that go against personal needs than their counterparts from private schools.
Social psychology; Justice; School
