This paper examines the concept of relational trust as a foundational element of school improvement and professional development. Drawing on the work of Bryk and Schneider, Barkley, and Santamaria and Santamaria, it argues that schools cannot effectively improve student outcomes without fostering genuine, reciprocal trust among teachers, administrators, and parents. The paper analyzes a specific professional development program that faltered due to a lack of dialogue and mutual respect, then proposes a transformational leadership approach centered on mentoring and collaborative goal-setting. It identifies four core elements of relational trust—respect, competence, personal regard, and integrity—and explains how each must be cultivated to create a functional and improvement-oriented school culture.
Fostering an atmosphere of relational trust in which reciprocal dialogue between teachers and administrators can take place is essential for a school to function. This enables an alignment between teaching styles and the goals and objectives of the school as a whole. There must also be mutual respect between teachers and administrators, and administrators must be willing to learn from the lived experience of teachers in the classroom. A mutually beneficial, trusting relationship ensures that goals are realistic and that the activities of teachers in the classroom support those goals.
Unfortunately, in my present employment situation, there is a great deal of animosity between teachers and administrators and a reluctance to support current professional development and assessment methods. Teachers are mistrustful of administrators, while administrators feel that teachers are unwilling to comply with reasonable requirements to improve the educational process.
When different components of a school see one another as "the enemy," or even simply as misguided, this indicates a clear lack of relational trust — a critical component of organizational improvement. According to Bryk and Schneider (2002), when researchers asked what factors "made the difference between schools that got better at educating children over the course of that decade — as measured by improved test scores — and schools that did not, the answer was not money, models of governance, up-to-date curricula, the latest in teaching techniques, or any other external variable. The answer was 'relational trust' between teachers and administrators, teachers and parents, teachers and teachers. Schools with high relational trust, and/or leaders who cared about it, had a much better chance of serving students well than schools that ranked low on those variables" (cited in Barkley, 2008).
Schools without relational trust are riddled with factions that are more apt to advance their own personal interests than the interests of the students the school is ultimately supposed to serve.
To encourage greater accountability, teachers at my school are presently required to compare their activities to a predetermined rubric describing effective teaching and are asked to identify professional learning goals. After identifying areas in which they are lacking, they are then expected to work on those areas in need of improvement. However, this method of self-reflection has failed to substantially improve student outcomes. Teachers do not seem to take the process seriously or trust that it can be helpful.
Our proposed solution is to mentor teachers to help them set more useful and concrete objectives, while engaging in dialogue with administrators to ensure that the goals and expectations are commensurate with the realities experienced by teachers in the classroom. This approach is designed to reflect transformational leadership. "Applied transformational leadership encompasses the act of empowering individuals to fulfill their contractual obligations, meet the needs of the organization, and go beyond the 'call of duty' for the betterment of the organization" (Santamaria & Santamaria, 2012, p. 3). However, unless the organization responds to the human needs of teachers and students, the full benefits of this transformational, personalized approach cannot be realized.
Part of this problem lies in the way the program was imposed upon teachers. The administrators created it to enhance student and teacher accountability: teachers were encouraged to engage in self-scrutiny and to improve their professional standards, with the hope that this would lead to a more enriching educational environment for students. Teachers, however, resented the additional paperwork the program required, while the loosely structured program left administrators frustrated when they felt that teachers gave it "short shrift."
"How direct dialogue supports transformational leadership in schools"
"Respect, competence, personal regard, and integrity examined"
Santamaria, L., & Santamaria, A. (2012). Applied critical leadership in education. Routledge.
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