Teacher-to-Teacher Trust and Collective Responsibility

In this chapter I discuss teacher-to-teacher trust as a factor in the development of collective responsibility, drawing from all five discourses (see Figure 2.1). The formation of relational trust has been linked to enabling school structures that create collaborative environments where teachers work together in supportive relationships, and where open dialogue, risk taking, experimentation, feedback and reflection are encouraged and practised (Tschannen-Moran, 2001). The findings of my study support the presence of these structural links in schools with a high degree of relational trust between teachers.