Chapter 2: Building Trust in Schools: A Review of the Empirical Evidence

The purpose of this study was to take stock of the empirical evidence on trust formation within schools by identifying the different forms of trust found within the literature and examining its antecedent conditions. A total of 31 studies treating trust as a dependent variable and school features as predictors were reviewed. Two strands of studies encompassed the composition of trust found within the extant research. The first consisted of teacher trust referent on teaching colleagues, principals, students and parents, and the second was parent trust placed on school authorities. A generalized model of trust formation was advanced from the empirical findings that hypothesized trust to be a function of social mechanisms and cognitive discernments. The chapter concludes with a conceptual framing of the evidence and a direction for future research.