Can social justice leadership be a ‘Panacea’ for refugee students' academic achievement? Evidence from Türkiye

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among social justice leadership, student engagement and academic achievement within the context of refugee students in Türkiye. The study also aims at analyzing the mediating role of student engagement in the relationship between social justice leadership and academic achievement. The participants of the study include a total of 3483 refugee students from schools located in 12 regions in Turkish Statistical Regions Level 1. We used the mediation analysis of bootstrapping in order to test the model we had developed. The current study findings show that social justice leadership has a statistically significant positive direct effect on student engagement, while student engagement has a statistically significant positive direct effect on refugee students’ academic achievement. The findings also reveal that social justice leadership has an indirect effect on refugee students’ academic achievement with the mediating role of student engagement. Relying on the study findings, we present some suggestions for further studies.