Rasooli, AmirhosseinHolden, MichaelSinval, Jorge2025-05-052025Br Educ Res J. 2025;00:1–24.0141-1926http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/100393© 2025 British Educational Research Association.Teachers' conceptions of fairness influence their approaches to assessment. Perceptions of fair- ness underpin how teachers legitimate their values and provide reasons for teachers to defend assess- ment decisions and actions. This study therefore examined fairness conceptions at a critical stage in teachers' journey towards assessment capacity: their perceptions as teacher candidates. Specifically, we investigated 228 preservice teachers' concep- tions of assessment fairness using the Classroom Assessment Fairness Inventory (CAFI). The results of an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed four factors: assessment communication acts, grading de- cisions, responses to cheating and firm assessment decisions. These factors highlighted the domains and underpinning principles of fairness that participating preservice teachers used to evaluate issues of fair- ness in assessment. The results provide initial empir- ical foundations to promote nuanced understandings of fairness in assessment education.engClassroom assessmentConceptionsFairnessPreservice teachersjournal article10.1002/berj.41811469-3518