Faculty trust in the principal: an essential ingredient in high-performing schools

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among faculty trust in the principal, principal leadership behaviors, school climate, and student achievement. Design/methodology/approach -Data from 64 elementary, middle, and high schools in two school districts formed the basis of the study (n ¼ 3,215 teachers), allowing for correlational and regression analyses of the variables. Findings -The authors found that faculty trust in the principal was related to perceptions of both collegial and instructional leadership, as well as to factors of school climate such as teacher professionalism, academic press, and community engagement. Student achievement was also correlated with trust, principal leadership behaviors, and school climate. The authors found that both of the composite variables, principal behaviors and school climate, made significant independent contributions to explaining variance in student achievement and that together they explained 75 percent of the variance in achievement.Research limitations/implications -Limitations of the study include the use of a single form to collect participants' responses that may have elevated the degree of correlations, as well as the exclusion of rural schools from the sample. Practical implications -The findings of this study suggest that principals must foster and maintain trust in order to lead schools effectively. Importantly, trust has both interpersonal and task-oriented dimensions. Thus, principals must be prepared to engage collegially with teachers in ways that are consistently honest, open, and benevolent, while also dependably demonstrating sound knowledge and competent decision making associated with administering academic programs. Originality/value -Situated in a conceptual framework of systems theory, this study explored the interplay of faculty trust in the principal, principal behavior, school climate, and student achievement. The findings suggest that it is necessary for principals to evidence both interpersonal and task-oriented behaviors in order to be trusted by teachers. Furthermore, the strength of the relationships suggests that schools will not be successful in fostering student learning with...

A Conceptual Framework for Trust-building to Promote Teacher Leadership

“…Rafoth and Foriska (2006) highlighted an interactive model of school leadership, where principals engage their teachers in shared decision making. This type of transformational leadership led to improved problem solving and empowerment of teachers, consistent with other bodies of research (Garmston & Wellman, 2016;Hallinger & Murphy, 2013;Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015).…”

“…A key competency of school principals, instructional leadership, is to effectively drive decisions that ensure student success (National Policy Board for Educational Administration, 2015). While instructional leadership is a responsibility of school principals, they must empower teachers to engage in leadership opportunities that influence instructional decisions within the classroom, school, and greater community (Hallinger & Murphy, 2013;Mangin & Stoelinga, 2010;National Education Association, 2011;Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Rafoth and Foriska (2006) highlighted an interactive model of school leadership, where principals engage their teachers in shared decision making.…”

Together We Can Do So Much: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Framework of Collaboration in Schools

“…When trust is established, members are more likely to engage in higher levels of vulnerability and open communication . Trust is defined as a willingness to make oneself vulnerable to someone else in the belief that one's interests will not be negatively affected (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015).…”

Principals, Trust, and Cultivating Vibrant Schools

“…Thus, principals who reliably act in ways that elicit trust across time and settings are more likely to earn and maintain the trust of their faculty than those who do not [1][2][3]. Teachers want to be able to depend upon the actions of their principal, and teachers tend to have greater confidence in their own decision-making and actions when they feel they can predict the behavior of their principal [12].…”