Research indicates trust in schools significantly relates to student achievement and trust in school leaders significantly relates to trust in schools. This study expands on the existing research by identifying behaviours principals display and teachers identify that correspond to antecedent conditions of trust, as identified in the research literature. Principal understandings are compared to teacher articulated thoughts in order to identify if shared understandings and interpretations of events are a component of trust in schools. Seventeen survey questions about trust were asked in 138 schools. Three high trust and three low trust schools were identified via deviation from the grand mean. Interview data related to a broad spectrum of school structures and daily events was gathered at the six identified schools from a randomly selected group of teachers and each school's principal. The interview data was coded using antecedent conditions of trust as the organizational units for analysis. Supporting previous research, this thesis finds teacher data identified the antecedent conditions that are described most frequently by teachers as being Competence, Consistency and Reliability, Openness and Respect. Principal data identified the antecedent conditions of trust as being similar, not identical. There are relevant differences described in elements within the antecedents between teachers and school leaders. Overall, the results confirm the findings of Bryk and Schneider and Tschannen-Moran, while adding detail to the understanding of what matters in trust when in-school educators reflect on issues of organizational life.iii Acknowledgements

During the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors will be redeployed into roles with which they are unfamiliar. Adequate training must be provided to reacquaint doctors with medical ward practice, supporting psychological wellbeing and patient safety. Here we describe a cross-skilling programme in North Bristol NHS Trust designed to address colleague anxiety and support wellbeing during redeployment.

Conducted in British Columbia, this mixed-methods study tested the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored conditions that mediate the effects of such characteristics, and contributed to understandings about the role school-level leaders play in district efforts to improve achievement. Semistructured interview data from 37 school administrators provided qualitative data. Quantitative data were provided by the responses of 998 school and district leaders’ in 21 districts to two surveys. Student achievement data were district-level results of elementary and secondary student provincial math and language test scores. All nine district characteristics contributed significantly to student achievement. Three conditions served as especially powerful mediators of such district effects. The same conditions, as well as others, acted as significant mediators of school-level leader effects on achievement. This is among the few large-scale mixed-methods studies identifying characteristics of districts explaining variation in student achievement.

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