The Process of Trust Building Between University Researchers and Urban School Personnel

A wide range of research has examined trust building within corporations, businesses, and schools, and between and within organizations, but little research has been conducted that examines trust formation between university researchers and classroom-based teachers. Using a qualitative methodological approach, the authors examined the development of trusting relationships between their educational research team and a series of urban science teachers after 3 years of partnerships. It was found that teachers were initially cautiously optimistic about working with the research team, not wanting to invest much effort in the partnership until the research team had proven they were open, honest, and, most importantly, dedicated to helping their students. It was also found that the process of trust building began with an initial tentative and hesitant frontstage persona and eventually progressed to the point where they felt comfortable dropping their frontstage mask to engage in backstage conversations. The authors discovered that the trust-building process was transformative, in that, as trust was developed, it fostered the blurring of their social identities with the teachers as the teachers became teacher/researchers and the research team likewise became researcher/teachers.