Why building a trusting school culture is more like a frog than a bicycle, with Jenny Swift.
The research shows us that trusting school environments can have positive impacts on all members of school communities. Flourishing teachers and leaders report mutually trusting relationships at work 1 2, with school leaders also reporting that these trusting relationships help counteract some of the stresses and demands of the role 3.
We know that education is ever-changing and having a culture of trust is supportive in working through these changes 4, with one study finding that school leaders having trust in their teachers was linked to increased teacher innovativeness 5. It is not surprising then that trust in schools has also been linked to improved student attainment 6.
Why can trust be elusive in schools?
With all these benefits, why is it sometimes a missing ingredient of school life?
As Browning summarises:
“The topic of trust is both intriguing and elusive. The idea of trust is hard to define but we certainly know when it is missing.” 4
Browning went on to carry out research into highly trusted school leaders and one of the findings that explains this elusiveness is the fact that we do not all share a common understanding of trust. However, he did find 10 of the most common practices that school leaders use to build trustworthiness. These practices were unrelated to specific personality traits and showed no significant correlation with the length of time the school leader had been in post.
The most common practices for trustworthiness:
- Openly admits mistakes
- Offers trust to staff
- Actively listens
- Provides affirmation
- Makes informed/consultative decisions
- Is visible around the school
- Remains calm and level-headed
- Mentors and coaches staff
- Cares for staff
- Keeps confidences. 4
On the face of it, this looks like a straightforward list and easy enough to put into practice. However, is following this list enough?
The frog metaphor
Another article 7, also explores trust in schools and states that schools are more like a frog than a bicycle, but what do they mean by this? If you take apart a bike, it would not be too hard to put it back together again and you would have the same working bike. But if you took apart a frog (not the nicest image I know – but bear with me!) and try and put it back together again then that would be far too complex and you would never be able to restore the frog. Although they were talking about school systems, I think this also applies to trust. And just as the list above is a helpful guide, there is a danger that if you view the practices as a tick list to get through, trust will remain elusive.
From bicycle to frog
So what are the more dynamic, living components of trust – less like a series of component parts and more like a frog – that should be considered alongside this list?
This is where we can explore a way of ‘being’ alongside the doing. We have all been in situations where we have been asked questions but not genuinely felt like our answers were being heard or understood. This is where knowing your values as a leader can help. Looking at Browning’s practices, many of the values you have will underpin the behaviours shown and if you use those values as a compass to guide your decision making, then this list will become an authentic part of your practice. For example, the value of curiosity can support you in actively acknowledging any judgements you might have and need to let go of before asking questions – and the value of growth will support you in developing others through mentoring and coaching.
When moving from intent to impact, it is also important to consider the structures and systems that support trust-building practices and if there are any that may be hindering or undermining them. For example, you can take the time to listen to staff in meetings, or when they drop into your office, but what formal structures do you have to ensure you are gauging their opinions, thoughts and perspectives? You may feel that, as a school leader, you show staff you trust them but are there policies or procedures that may send a different message, such as aspects of performance management or lesson observations?
Browning’s practices relate to the trustworthiness of a school leader but how does this link with whole-school trusting environments? As can be seen, it is a two-way street and a part of cultivating trust in your leadership also means demonstrating and making visible your trust in others. This trust also ripples out to whole school communities when modelled by school leaders, although when trust norms are not upheld by other members of the school community, the leader will need to supportively challenge this to protect that culture 7.
The frog and the bicycle metaphor also comes in useful when we think about the loss of trust. As a school leader, it is inevitable that at some point you will lose the trust of some people. Unlike a bicycle, this is not just a case of replacing the broken part and hopping back on and continuing with your journey. Repairing broken trust can be tricky.
In my career, I have inadvertently broken trust with a group and managed to restore it to levels that were higher than before the break, but I can also recall breaking trust with an individual and it never being fully repaired. The difference in the two experiences was the explicit acknowledgement of the trust being broken, a genuine curiosity in listening to the other person’s perspective and a proactive approach to repairing the trust.
As you start the new school year, here are a few questions that will help you create those trusting environments:
- Which of Browning’s list of key practices do you already do well and how could you build on that further?
- What are your core values as a school leader and how do they link to the practices?
- What adaptations can you make to any policies and systems that will support the practices that build trust?
References
- Cherkowski, S., & Walker, K. (2016). Purpose, Passion and Play: Exploring the Construct of Flourishing from the Perspective of School Principals. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(4), 378–392. ERIC. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2014-0124
- Rehal, B. M.-S., & van Nieuwerburgh, C. (2022). Understanding the factors that contribute to educator flourishing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 12(2), 36–87.
- Heffernan, A., & Mills, M. (2023). Love, Care, and Solidarity: Understanding the Emotional and Affective Labour of School Leadership. Cambridge Journal of Education, 53(3), 311–327.
- Browning, P. (2014). Why trust the head? Key practices for transformational school leaders to build a purposeful relationship of trust. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 17(4), 388–409.
- Dedering, K., & Pietsch, M. (2023). School leader trust and collective teacher innovativeness: on individual and organisational ambidexterity’s mediating role. Educational Review, 1–30.
- Bryk, A. S., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement. Russell Sage Foundation. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610440967
- Kutsyuruba, B., & Walker, K. (2015). The lifecycle of trust in educational leadership: an ecological perspective. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 18(1), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2014.915061
Author
Jenny has worked in education for over 20 years with ten years in international school leadership. She is now coaching leaders in education
and delivering positive leadership and well-being training. Jenny is EMCC accredited and has recently completed an MSc in applied positive psychology and
coaching psychology.
