CULTIVATING TRUST IN SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

The overall aim of this article is to advance an understanding of trust in school context, particularly in relation to school leadership. The specific study objectives are: 1. To identify and evaluate critically the barriers to and the promotion of trust in order to foster it in schools; 2. To formulate recommendations for trust issues. The literature identifies the main reasons why schools have become involved in trust: as a form of social capital; a foundation of professional learning communities; as a basis for networking; as a main factor in distributed leadership; as a factor in positive school improvement and as an important component of school leadership. The conclusions have to be viewed in terms of a caveat. The conclusions are based on an extensive review of the related literature, which means that the conclusions are linked to this source only. These recommendations would have a number of benefits. Firstly, school leaders themselves would understand collectively why trust is important to schools and what the benefits are to the school as a whole, as well as to staff and students. Secondly, they would then be in a much better position to win staff participation. When schools build up trust, teachers can interact openly, and ask each other about any problems, both personal and professional. Thirdly, good trusting relationships between teachers attract parents, who are more likely to recognize when teachers rely on each other and have mutual interdependence, and so improve school results together.