Building Trust Among Teachers

While most of the above suggestions have been framed in terms of what principals and other administrators can do, teachers’ role in developing trust with administrators should not be overlooked. Clearly, teachers’ levels of receptivity to and support for principals’ efforts to improve trust make a difference in how effective they can be.

The responsibility for building trust among teachers falls on the shoulders of principals and teachers alike. Principals can—and should—take an active role in creating the necessary conditions for teacher relationships that are both collegial and congenial (Sergiovanni, 1992). According to Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (1998), however, "the behavior of teachers is the primary influence on trust in colleagues" (pp. 348–349). If relationships between teachers are to change significantly, teachers themselves must work to identify barriers to trust within the faculty and take the initiative to improve, repair, and maintain relationships. Some places to begin:

Engage the full faculty in activities and discussions related to the school’s mission, vision, and core values. According to Bryk and Schneider (2002), "trust within a faculty is grounded in common understandings about what students should learn, how instruction should be conducted, and how teachers and students should behave with one another. For teachers to sense integrity among colleagues, a faculty must not only share these views but also perceive that the actions taken by other teachers are consistent with them" (p. 130).

Make new teachers feel welcome. In the busy first few weeks of a school year, it is not uncommon for new teachers to be overlooked (Gordon, 1991). Developing a friendly and supportive relationship with newcomers from the beginning—by inviting them to lunch, introducing them to others in the school, offering to help locate supplies, and so on—goes a long way toward reducing patterns of isolation and building teacher-teacher trust. Principals can support relationship-building between new and returning faculty by creating opportunities throughout the school year for teachers to meet and get to know one another.

Create—and support—meaningful opportunities for teachers to work collaboratively. Too often, schools are structured in ways that prevent teachers from working together closely. Authentic relationships, however, "are fostered by personal conversations, frequent dialogue, shared work, and shared responsibilities. As individuals interact with one another, they tend to listen across boundaries—boundaries erected by disciplines, grade levels, expertise, authority, position, race, and gender" (Lambert, 1998, p. 79). Principals can support collaboration by making time in the schedule for teachers to work together, providing training on effective strategies for team-building, and offering incentives for teachers to collaborate (Blase & Blase, 2001; Tschannen-Moran, Uline, Hoy, & Mackley, 2003). Teachers can also seek out opportunities to work with—or simply get to know—teachers in other buildings, content areas, and grades.

Identify ways to increase and/or improve faculty communication. One possibility that requires little additional time for teachers is to set up a faculty Web site. Depending on teachers’ interests, the site could be used to host a discussion board about areas of common interest or concern, to report on the work of different school committees, to post invitations to social gatherings, to share lesson ideas, to post articles and Web links that may be of interest to other teachers, or simply to exchange information about upcoming activities at school. Providing teachers and other staff training on effective communication skills may be useful, too.

Make relationship-building a priority. As a faculty, select a small but diverse group of teachers to do some initial legwork: locating an assessment tool, measuring teacher-teacher trust in the school, talking to faculty about perceived strengths and areas of concern, and investigating relevant professional development strategies. This information can then be presented to the whole faculty and used to set goals and identify appropriate next steps. (For an example of a school that did just this, see the Whitaker Middle School profile in the Northwest Sampler section of this booklet).

Choose a professional development model that promotes relationship-building. Peer coaching, mentoring, team teaching, professional learning communities, and networking are all models that can be used to strengthen teacher relationships by bringing individuals together around issues of mutual interest and/or concern. Beaverton, Oregon’s, Southridge High School, for example, (profiled at the end of this booklet) adopted the Critical Friends Group model to develop trust among staff in a newly-opened school. Whichever model (or models) the faculty chooses, it is important that it not be linked to formal performance evaluation. Mentoring and peer coaching models, for instance, are generally more effective when mentor teachers are not a new staff member’s supervisor or department chair (da Costa & Riordan, 1996; Israel, 2003).