Educational Management

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Trust Me: Your School Can Be Better−−A Message from Teachers to Principals
Norma Ghamrawi
Educational Management Administration & Leadership 2011 39: 333 originally published online 25
March 2011
DOI: 10.1177/1741143210393997

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Article
Educational Management
Administration & Leadership
Trust Me: Your School 39(3) 333–348
ª The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission:
Can Be Better—A Message sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1741143210393997
from Teachers to Principals emal.sagepub.com

Norma Ghamrawi

Abstract
Drawing upon empirical data, this article explores the concept of trust as a context for the
establishment of teacher leadership. This article is part of a larger study that was carried out
over a 2-year period and involved 21 teachers, 21 subject leaders and 9 principals belonging to
three private K–12 schools in Beirut, Lebanon. Data was collected through semi-structured
interviews. Findings suggest the pivotal role of trust in establishing higher levels of teachers’ self
efficacy, collaboration, commitment, collective vision and building a strong sense of belonging to
the organization thus paving the way towards the establishment of teacher leadership. The article
highlights how principals establish trust by (1) securing a considerate environment that encourages
teachers to get involved in professional dialogues; (2) modelling specific leadership behaviours; and
(3) making it possible for teachers to instigate ideas and programmes that result from reflective
practice.

Keywords
administration, leadership, management, schools

Introduction
As schools are put under new pressures from every quarter, educational reform seems to be a must.
According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (1996), such a reform
may not succeed unless it focuses on creating better conditions for teachers. The reform then,
should take the form of creating new roles for teachers in schools that go beyond classroom rou-
tines and practises (Kfouri, 2000). The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) in the UK
declares that leadership lies at the heart of any successful reform (Ofsted, 2000). In other words,
schools that wish to face the challenges confronting them are encouraged to redesign the roles
assigned to teachers in schools and should focus on leadership aspects in the school. ‘Leadership’

Corresponding author:
Norma Ghamrawi, Chouran, PO Box 13-5196, Beirut, Lebanon
Email: dr.norma_ghamrawi@hotmail.com

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334 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

must not continue to indicate the actions one person takes for, or with, other people in a school
(Lambert et al., 1996). It should refer to ‘the reciprocal processes that enable participants in an
educational community to construct meanings that lead toward a common purpose of schooling
(Lambert et al., 1996: 43).
Leadership is not supposed to be localized in a single person in the school (Harris, 2002).
Teachers should be able to engage in decision making not only at the level of the subjects they
teach but also at the school level. In other words, teachers should have a share in school leadership
and play a critical role in fostering student learning, curricula, assessment, instruction, the profes-
sional growth of their colleagues as well as their own professional growth. Teachers would then be
carrying out leadership roles known as teacher leadership (Crowther et al., 2002; Goleman, 2002;
Gronn, 2000; Harris, 2002; Jackson, 2002; Spillane et al., 2001).
Teachers who are leaders have been considered by Patterson and Patterson (2001) as the cham-
pions who stretch the boundaries of their schools and promote them into higher levels. With
teacher leadership, it is not meant that the principal abdicates his/her power but rather expands
it (Crowther et al., 2002). In fact, the principal would still act as the fulcrum of school leadership
as he/she will be better supported by the empowerment of several other leaders. Nowadays, schools
are requested to educate a much broader population for a swiftly changing global society with a
ballooning information base. With the daunting new circumstances facing schools, principals now
need every leader they can get (Spillane et al., 2001). Particularly, teacher-leaders are of greatest
value to school reform as they are in direct contact with learners.
According to Sergiovanni (1992), effective change is considerably influenced by the way teach-
ers, students and school leaders relate to each other and cooperate together. Teacher-leaders are
expected to work collegially in order to raise students attainment (Marsh, 1997).This requires
schools to reconstructing their entire organizational culture. In that sense, schools turn into profes-
sional learning communities, which adopt systems and structures that enable staff at all levels to
learn collaboratively and continuously and to put this new learning into use (Hord, 1997).
The literature accentuates cultures of trust as premises for any teacher-leadership foundation
(Harris and Muijs, 2005; Murphy, 2005). However, empirical studies of trust in schools are rare
(Bryk and Schneider, 1996; Hoy et al., 1996; Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 1998; Uline et al.,
1998). Methodologically, most existing trust research is quantitative in nature and the need exists
for qualitatively designed research (Bottery, 2003; Hoy and Sweetland, 2001).
Consequently, this article highlights the importance of trust as a premise for teacher-leadership
establishment building on five key research findings: establishing higher levels of teachers’ self
efficacy, collaboration, commitment, collective vision and building a strong sense of belonging
to the organization. The article also elaborates on the critical role played by principals in building
and shaping the culture of trust that supports teacher leadership.

Context and Methodology

Within the Lebanese system of education, students are enrolled in school at the age of 3 when they
join preschools and graduate at the age of 18 when they pass the 12th-grade official exams set
nationally for all students by the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE).
The 12th grade is equivalent to the freshman years in the American system of education and is
called the Lebanese Baccalaureate (LB). Students with the LB join universities as sophomores.
Moreover, the LB is directly comparable with the French Baccalaureate; they are very similar
certificates.

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Ghamrawi: Your School Can Be Better 335

The MEHE regulates all education institutes in the public sector through a regional education
system. The education system in Lebanon is centralized, and this regulation is not direct. The edu-
cation system is managed through regional education bureaus. Public schools are monitored by the
regional education bureaus in the governorates. The regional education bureau serves as liaisons
between the public school and the directorates of education at the ministry’s headquarters. Private
schools, unlike public schools, are independent institutes with little authority imposed on them by
the MEHE. These schools do not depend on national or local government for financing. Moreover,
principals of these schools are free to decide on teacher recruitment, curriculum, fund-raising, pro-
fessional development, enrollment, and so on.
The researched schools were selected on the basis of their willingness to participate in this
study. In fact, out of nine K–12 private schools, of almost the same size, situated in Beirut, only
four expressed their readiness to take part in the study. One of these schools withdrew soon after a
meeting held between the researcher and the school principal claiming that the study would take a
lot of her staff’s time. Public schools were not approached because principals of these school have
no room themselves to practice leadership (Yacoub, 2000). Almost ‘everything’ seems to be dic-
tated to such principals by the MEHE including the right to select or share in selecting teachers for
their own schools, student distribution in classes, allocation of teaching hours to teachers and
registration.
As the concept of teacher leadership has not been investigated in any earlier research conducted
in Lebanon, the researcher attempted to collect rich data to allow a plural empathic understanding
about this concept. Thus, the approach was intended to be contextual and interactive rather than
being deterministic so as to interpret, describe and understand members’ definitions of the concept.
Prediction, control, generalizations and unveiling of truth were not themes for this study. Most of
the goals stated above fit into a conceptual framework that is commonly referred to as the inter-
pretive paradigm of research (Rennie, 1998; Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Lincoln and Guba,
2000; Locke et al., 2000; Schriver, 2001; Trochim, 2001; Babbie, 2002).
Data was collected via qualitative interviewing. Fifty-one, 60-minutes, semi-structured
interviews with teachers, subject leaders and principals, belonging to three private K–12 schools
in Beirut, Lebanon, comprised the research sample.
Students enrolled in these schools were of varied socio-economic status. Moreover, these
schools are considered as high-performing schools in Beirut in terms of their students’ achieve-
ment in the very rigorous LB. In fact, the participating schools achieved 100 per cent success in
the LB over the past 10 years.
The total number of students enrolled in the three schools involved in the study varied between
1200 and 1400 students while the number of staff varied between 200 and 300. Being a K–12
school, each participant school had three principals: one for the preschool, another for the elemen-
tary school and a third for the middle and secondary levels.
Participant teachers and subject leaders were selected randomly from the pool of individuals
who expressed their interest in participating in the study. In fact, the whole population of teachers
and subject leaders in the three schools were emailed by the researcher with information about the
study..
Furthermore, the records of all the three schools obtained from the most professional organiza-
tions in Beirut indicated their active participation in almost all professional development events for
staff. This supports the claims of the principals of such schools.
In the context of investigating teacher leadership in three private K–12 schools in Beirut,
Lebanon, this study highlights the importance of trust as a premise for its establishment.

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336 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

Three categories of participants were involved in the study: principals, subject leaders and
classroom teachers. Three semi-structured interview schedules of 12 questions constituted the
instruments via which data was collected. This article describes the research findings in relation
to the following two questions: (1) Describe the school culture that supports teacher leadership
establishment? (2) What kind of human relations, in your opinion, ensures the sustainability of
teacher leadership at your school?
The NVivo 2.0 computer software package from QSR International was employed for data anal-
ysis. It helped in the establishment of structured thematic analysis for the obtained qualitative data,
by its powerful abilities at sorting and coding data.

Trust: A Premise for Teacher Leadership Establishment

The study indicates that teacher leadership may not flourish unless it is supported by a very strong
positive school culture. Several descriptors were offered by participants to describe positive school
cultures, however, all focused on the same theme: courteous human relations emanating from trust-
ing relations. Trust raises an endeavour for joint effort among school staff much more effectively
than investments in professional development activities.

You cannot speak about teachers as leaders in a school without that making them feel so deep in their
hearts that they are worth for their school, that they are driving forces for their school...they should feel
that senior leaders believe in them and believe that what they are doing will make a difference for
students. (School A, teacher 3)

I believe that it [teacher leadership] is a chemical equation; there are reactants and products. The product
we are talking about is teacher leadership but the reactants are not limited to professional knowledge
but also includes respect and trust from those who supervise your work. (School C, teacher 7)

I trade trust in my teachers with achievements and outstanding contribution to school climate and hence
student learning. When you trust a teacher, you can never predict the outcomes. (School B, principal 3)

Trusting relations stimulate teachers to exhibit a passion for professionalism, collegial dialogue,
collective problem-solving, risk-taking, community building and bear strong commitment to con-
tinual instructional development and design. In such cultures, teachers cooperate in performing
joint projects and make time to interact around problems of practise, fostering relationships char-
acterized by openness and developing a shared purpose that is centred on student learning. In other
words, these cultures of trust secure a climate of dedication to excellence and allegiance to learning
that is the crux of teacher leadership.

in such an environment [trusting environment] you can’t but do your best to make those who trusted you
feel that their trust has been put in the right place. This will make you collaborate with colleagues far more
professionally, it will make you invent methods to ensure better student learning. (School B, teacher 5)

In an environment where you feel threatened, you would count to hundred before trying out new things.
You would get isolated and do just what is required. However, in an environment where you feel safe,
belonging or trusted and respected the sky is not the limit to what you can do. This environment will
force you to develop your skills because it will make you open up to others and hence become a leader
for student learning. (School C, subject leader 2)

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Ghamrawi: Your School Can Be Better 337

Figure 1. Trust and teacher leadership establishment

Specifically, trust promotes teacher leadership by securing five elements that were identified by
the research study (Figure 1). These are: establishing higher levels of teachers’ self efficacy; col-
laboration; commitment; collective vision; and building a strong sense of belonging to the
organization.

Trust and Teachers’ Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy relates to ‘people’s judgment of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of
action required to attain designated types of performance . . . it is concerned not with the skills
one has but with judgments of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses’ (Bandura,
1986: 391). In other words, self-efficacy has to do with personal mottos such as ‘Yes, I can do
it’ or ‘I will be able to make a difference’.
The literature highlights the strong relationship between trust and self-efficacy. Hoy and
Tschannen-Moran (2003) explain that there is a positive correlation between high levels of trust
in a school and a high level of teacher perceived efficacy. In fact, ‘When teachers trust each other,
it is more likely that they will develop greater confidence in their collective ability to be successful
at meeting their goals’ (Tschannen-Moran, 2004: 127).
According to this study, self-efficacy beliefs are sensitive to organizational contextual factors.
The most important factor of them all is trust. Trust provides school staff with an enduring tran-
quillity that makes them approach difficult tasks with a belief that they will be highly efficacious
in carrying out those tasks. It pushes them to try harder to achieve goals, persist despite setbacks
and develop coping strategies to overcome possible pitfalls. In other words, trust is an effective
tool for increased teacher self-efficacy.

When you are trusted, you tend to gain the power that makes you succeed in your endeavours ... you
will be more positive about what you are doing. (School A, subject leader 2)

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338 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

A culture of trust entails a better self-image for teachers . . . So the trust you put in them makes them
trust themselves more. (School B, principal 1)

With the lack of trust teachers will unlikely engage in meaningful conversation, expose their
practise to peers, nor develop a sense of solidarity and affiliation with each other. In that climate
of mistrust, teachers tend to get isolated, get weary of engaging with colleagues and hence tend to
keep things for themselves.

Such a culture [culture of trust] is a premise for bringing teachers together, to help each other and not
veil their daily-practises from each other. (School C, subject leader 6)

In fact, when teachers speak out about their professional practises, they tend to admire what they
are doing and hence their self-perception is enhanced. In other words, by virtue of trust profes-
sional communication is catalysed whose end product is increased teachers’ self-efficacy.

You know, you can’t tell which leads to which ... a trusting environment makes you open up to the
school community because such an environment makes feel safe to speak about what you do and how
you do it . . . so, many times things that you underestimate with yourself turn out to be quite special and
sometimes unique. This [also] makes you feel good about yourself at school. (School C, teacher 2)

Trust impacts teachers’ self-efficacy in another way. In fact, trusted teachers tend to act as risk-
takers. This pushes them to stretch the boundaries of what they and how they do in a seemingly
captivating manner. This pushes teachers to try out new instructional methodologies, implement
alternative assessment plans and thereby boost their creativity.

As an example, I never tried learning centres or cooperative learning in my classes in my previous

school because the dominating atmosphere is very threatening and inspective. With my principal who
trusts me well, I am able to do all of that. (School C, teacher 1)

Allowing teachers’ provisioned creativity to flourish is a primary and basic step towards having
achieving a sense of the fact that they can actually do things they never thought they could do. That
is, because it promotes risk-taking, trust has the potential to create the channels for boosting teach-
ers’ self-efficacy.

Trust and Collaboration

Bennis and Nanus (1985: 43) consider trust to be ‘... the lubrication that makes it possible for orga-
nizations to work’. The findings of this study reflect this theme by considering trust as an essential
foundation for bonding people together in relationships that allow them to work together and for
the same shared purpose. In other words, trust is a necessary condition for successful collaboration
among school members. Teachers who collaborate may share lesson plans around interdisciplinary
theme units or work toward common expectations concerning student work and behaviour. This
increases their sense of affiliation with each other, with the school and their sense of mutual
support.

Trust is very much similar to chemical bonds between atoms. Atoms that are very much different would
sit together by virtue of such chemical bonds. This is very similar to what trust can do. Even people who

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Ghamrawi: Your School Can Be Better 339

are very much not alike tend to collaborate more in a medium of trust and respect. This medium forces
them to do so. (School B, teacher 2)

Trust entails trustees to adopt a common goal, which is often centred on school vision and
mission. When trust is distributed throughout the whole school community, members of that
community tend to collaborate in order to achieve that shared goal. This is a golden opportunity
for professionals to form productive working partnerships within the school site. This opposed
to situations in which school members are working towards poorly defined goals. When this
happens, miscommunication, nuisance, aggravation and frustration often occur instead of
collaboration.

A culture of trust makes teachers collaborate together. They would be working towards the same ends.
So indirectly they are adopting the same vision for student learning. (School C, principal 2)

In my previous school where mistrust was dominant, it is rare to find teachers talking about issues per-
taining to students and student learning. Most of the talk would be gossiping; yes gossiping about
everybody and every issue at school. (School C, teacher 1)

However, caution must be taken in the way trust is distributed in the school community. In fact,
the study reveals that when trust is made available for every one in the school community irrespec-
tive of his/her accomplishments or contributions to school goals and targets, school members tend
to devalue the trust invested in them. They would tend to considering it as a kind of ‘bribe’ or ‘lol-
lipop’ that the principal offers to school members to encourage them work and put more effort into
their work.

Trust which is inevitable for teacher leadership establishment may also be harmful if not well
employed. You know, you cannot trust everybody; otherwise it won’t be a positive thing for you. It
works best when somebody wants to start something new. In that case you better trust that teacher and
give her a helping hand. You can’t distribute trust over the whole school community to make them
happy and that’s it . . . trust has to be a prize for achievement or a catalyst for an achievement. (School
B, subject leader 1)

Only when school members believe that they really deserve the trust invested in them based on
certain characteristics they reveal or tasks they accomplish, do they endorse school goals and tar-
gets. At this point only, the amount and nature of particular teacher’s contributions may vary
greatly, and teachers recognize that what they offer is integral to the collaborative effort.

Trust and Commitment

In school settings commitment entails school members who are bound to the organization’s phi-
losophy, vision, mission, goals, clientele and values (Graham, 1996; Louis, 1998).
Data in this study suggest that the development of organizational commitment is highly influ-
enced by contextual environmental factors in addition to the principal’s behaviour. In fact, when
principals adopt an ethos of trust, they tend to distribute leadership powers, and crucially the
responsibilities associated with that power. As a result, members of the organization tend to be
more inclined to assist in creatively coping with the threats confronting the organization. This
results in an increased level of commitment on the behalf of school members.

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340 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

When you build a culture of trust, you are empowering yourself as a principal because this will make
your teachers sense that they are partners in what you are doing ... So resistance against you will be less.
(School C, principal 3)

Teacher leaders build a momentum for the school because they are trusted figures who tend to share
senior leadership all the threats and all the battles they carry out. (School A, teacher 2)

Trust also catalyses commitment by acting on the emotional dimension of trustees. In that sense,
trust acts as an antidote to the fears and risks attendant to school members confronting them in their
career tasks and routines. When trust prevails, school members get more willing to go through ups,
downs, risks and potential losses. This is not because they got more skilled technically or pedago-
gically speaking but rather because they’ve got higher internal energy that raises their beliefs and
attachment to their organization.

Even if you succeed at establishing it [teacher leadership], teacher leadership may be threatened if you don’t
provide the teacher with the room where she would feel that she is trusted to try out various things in her
classes and even with her colleagues. When this is the case, a teacher leader tends to sacrifice anything for
the sake of the school simply because it is not only a mind issue but also a heart issue. (School B, teacher 2)

In other words, trust leverages trustees to surmount possible challenges by creating an emo-
tional bond between them and their organizations.

Trust and Collective Vision

A vision is a statement of goals, principles and expectations for the entire organization. The liter-
ature suggests that the creation and communication of a school vision rests on the shoulders of
effective school leaders (Mahoney,1990; Leithwood and Riehl, 2003). It could be argued that the
communication of the vision is far more complicated than its creation. This study suggests that
trust serves as an effective tool for the communication of a vision.
When faculty members view their leaders as trustworthy and trusting individuals to whom they
can relate and respect, they tend to establish effective lines of communication with them. It is
through these lines that school leaders project, promote and hold their faculty steadfast to the
school vision. This ensures that the school vision is clearly articulated, shared, understood and
implemented, within the school’s context and culture. Leaders would receive the chance to build
congruence between teacher specific classroom micro-goals and the overall goals that govern the
school system. Once all teachers get involved in this process then a shared collective vision is born
in the school. This collective vision inspires and creates commitment and embracement to risk and
innovation on the behalf of school members.

As a principal, teacher leadership necessitates that I make my teacher feel that I trust them and trust
their activities. This makes me even more powerful at school simply because trust makes these teachers
keep me posted about almost all the obstacle they get confronted with . . . When you hear from many
teachers, you can put them together and make their concerns kind of unified and relate that to school
vision. (School C, principal 2)

If my principal understands what trust can do, the same way my coordinator [subject leader] does, the
whole school would be working towards the same vision because all individuals would be working
towards the same ends with high levels of commitment. (School A, teacher 5)

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Ghamrawi: Your School Can Be Better 341

Trust also ensures the creation of a collective vision via another route. In fact, by virtue of trust,
leaders tend to act as role models for their trustees. Trustees then get inclined to walk the talk of these
leaders by modelling their behaviour. So, if leaders do model the behaviour of school vision, then
trustees would adopt that vision and the result is a collective vision dominating the school system.

I am lucky that both my coordinator [subject leader] and principal believe in me and respect my work
with my students. I really look high at them and learn from them. This learning has made me myself
believe in myself, my students and my student teachers. (School C, teacher 1)

Trust and Sense of Belonging

Teachers’ sense of belonging to the school relates to their tendency to believe that their school is a
‘good place to be in’. It ensures that the environments in which they are enrolled do not give off
negative exclusionary messages. Contrary to this, these environments stipulate sincere and earnest
interests in them as individuals. Trusted teachers seem to build strong commitment to their schools
(Wahlstrom and Louis, 2008).
The study suggests that trust anchors the organization and allows its members to enjoy acting as
a part of its community. This is because trust demands trustees shared responsibility for key deci-
sions. This shared responsibility reinforces a sense of parity among the school community. It also
decreases complaints against the current status in the school system as faculty members acted as an
integral part in the decision-making process.

When you trust your staff, you would be making them more accountable as you often make them
decide on the what is best for their students’ learning. (School A, teacher 1)

Trust affects the well-being of school members by touching on the emotional dimension. School
members are humans who above all thrive for the purpose of enjoying human relations. This study
indicates that trust, because it entails respect, ranks highly on that list of relations. Trust is a sign of
respect, which in turn is source of well-being for any individual in the school system.

I am paid less in this school than my previous school, yet I am ok with that simply because it’s not only
about money it is more about feeling respected and trusted. (School B, teacher 1)

Trust also enhances teachers’ sense of belonging via another route. Trust heralds a less threa-
tening environment for school members because in such environments inspection is replaced by
supervision. Traditional inspection is often very rigid and authoritarian with one goal: judging per-
formance. Contrary to this, supervision possesses a dynamic function that offers professional gui-
dance and leadership to teachers that involve and stimulate them while evaluating their
performance with a fundamental vision that focuses on professionalism. This has the effect of
minimizing teacher attrition. When this is the case, a very big burden is abolished from the school
setting, making these settings more friendly, affable and genial.

My school deal with us [teachers] the same way they deal with students, if not even worse than that . . .
they would check my lesson planner on daily basis, they would pop up into my class more than thrice a
day . . . the coordinator would intrude while I am teaching my class and put me aside and teach instead
of me . . . They don’t trust me as a teacher. (School A, teacher 5)

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342 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

Our department is an example on what trust is and how it builds and promotes teacher leadership. The
coordinator [subject leader] deals with us [teachers] on the basis of being professionals even if we were
novice. She would share with us departmental problems and requests our suggestions. She would invite
us to attend her classes the same way she attends our classes. (School C, teacher 3)

Finally, trust has been distinguished as a foundation for teachers’ self-efficacy, collaboration
and commitment. This is another reason why trust ensures the establishment of a setting where
school members enjoy a strong sense of belonging to their schools.

Role of the Principal

According to Buckner and McDowelle (2000), principals do play a major role in developing
teacher leadership. Principals are called to secure a culture that builds and supports teacher lead-
ership by several researchers such as Ash and Persall (2000) and Childs-Bowen et al. (2000). This
study suggests that the principal has the prime responsibility of building the school culture and
exhibiting the tactics necessary to deal with specific problems associated with that culture. Day
et al. (2001) stress the importance of personal values, particularly trust. This study raises the issue
of the critical influence of the principal in determining how effective the implementation of trust
can be. It suggests that principals implement trust by (1) securing a considerate environment that
encourages teachers to get involved in professional dialogues; (2) modelling specific leadership
behaviours; and (3) making it possible for teachers to instigate ideas and programmes that result
from reflective practice.

Securing an Environment of Professional Dialogue Generates Trust

As discussed earlier, trust plays a critical role in establishing effective channels of communication.
Once lines of communication have been opened, the faculty becomes autonomous, and shared gov-
ernance adaptations begin to reap noticeable rewards. This seems to be a mutually dependent rela-
tionship: participants explained that if they were engaged in professional dialogues in their schools,
they would feel more trusted.

It is a reversible process: Talking with your colleagues about classroom matters makes you feel more
safe and trust between staff results. (School B, teacher 3)

However, the study distinguishes professional dialogue between teachers and principals as that
particular kind of communication that has the effect of contributing to trust generation. Principals,
thus, have the colossal task of not only building the channels of communication but rather to ele-
vate it to the level of professional discourse.

You can distinguish various groups of staff in a school where trust is missing: It is either the case of
silent and isolated individual teachers or the case of gangs of teachers who keep on talking and talking
about every single person and issue at school ... they gossip a lot about each other too. (School A,
teacher 4)

The role of the principal seems to be evident as a keystone in supporting the development of
conditions for dialogue about teaching and learning, motivating staff to articulate to others the stra-
tegies that work well for them and what makes pupils better learners. It is suggested that this

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Ghamrawi: Your School Can Be Better 343

professional dialogue can be made true by focusing on the creation of sustainable

community-based collaborative projects that are structured to create the prospects for staff
to learn from each other. Such projects would secure a foundation of commitment and passion
for robust professionalism that works in concert with a sound practice to provide enduring
inspiration.

At my school teachers are encouraged and urged by the principal to take over projects, science fairs or
professional development workshops. These projects build teachers’ leadership skills because it makes
them get responsible not only for themselves but also for others. These projects ensure effective com-
munication between teachers. (School C, teacher 2)

How professional dialogue acts as a vehicle for building and strengthening trusting relations is
explained in terms of the reduction in attrition that is often associated with negative school cultures.
The primary concern for school members involved in this study was to know exactly how they were
carrying on their tasks in their school through the lenses of their principals. One teacher, for example,
explained that she feels very threatened in her school simply because she has been teaching in that
school for four years, yet she never knew how her principal ranked her contribution within the school
system. Not only this, she explained that she was conducting a great deal of challenging and creative
activities in her classroom, yet the echo of those activities never escaped the boundaries of her
classroom. In other words, when school members get involved in professional dialogues with their
principals, one of the major gains is the creation of a culture of openness and respect which are
premises for engendering trust.

Modelling Specific Leadership Behaviours Generates Trust

The empowerment of teachers and the shift to a more distributed model of leadership was men-
tioned explicitly by almost all participants in this study as an indispensable tool for trust
implementation.

Schools that trust its teachers, allow these to voice their opinions concerning issue that relate to their
classrooms and students; and in some cases, they would encourage them to suggest ideas for whole
school improvement. (School C, teacher 2)

With empowerment, teachers participate in the foundation of school goals, policies and various
school activities. The study suggests that teachers who have been empowered in their schools tend
to be more inclined to discuss issues more openly with their school principals, an issue that is con-
sidered as a hallmark of trust.

A culture of trust is a premise for teacher leadership establishment and trust is the only tool that helps
sustain it because by virtue of trust teachers fear nothing; they would tend to remain in touch with their
principals. (School B, principal 2)

School members also considered ethical leadership behaviour to be positively associated with
organizational trust. Through this leadership model, principals exhibit moral character and selfless
service to the school organization. Sincerity, integrity and candour in all principal’s actions are
prerequisites for trust establishment. Deceptive behaviour corrupts the efforts to achieve any trust.

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344 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

Teacher leadership necessitates a culture of trust that may not be established except by senior leaders
who are trustful, who do not lie, who do not claim ideas for themselves while somebody else generated
such ideas; who are respectful. (School A, teacher 6)

The study also suggests that school members tend to trust only those whom they respect and
who have a clear sense of direction. Respect necessitates leaders to be ethical, while a sense of
direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.

Teacher leadership is sustained only through trustful principals and coordinators [subject leaders] who
respect you and who know exactly where they are heading to. (School C, teacher 2)

However, the study suggests that the exhibition of such leadership behaviours may not create
trust solely by hearing about such behaviours, but rather by observing them modelled by their
principals. Walking the talk or leading by example; by defining boundaries and operating within
them, and by providing the vision for all to see; constitute the foundation for this kind of leadership.

My principal often talks and talks; however when it is time to act, she acts in a way that is opposite to
what she has always been talking about. This makes everybody tend to laugh with themselves during
her meetings because they know that she would be acting out very much differently from what she is
talking about. (School C, teacher 2)

This point is quite similar to that of Fullan (2003: 3), who assures that ‘the quality of an edu-
cation system relates directly to the quality of life that people enjoy’.
In simpler terms, trust is brought about in organizations in which principals reflect ethical lead-
ership, endorse a culture of empowerment and, above all, who walk their talk. Leading in this man-
ner can help to instil a culture at the heart of which is trust.

Instigating Ideas and Programmes Resulting from Reflective Practice Generates Trust
Instigating ideas and programmes, which result from reflective practice, refers to teachers allowing
teachers to impart experiences about best practices and strategies for teaching and learning to the
pool of learners in the school. Ample time for reflection on such pedagogical issues and strategies
is provided for faculty members. As a result, school members suggest, plan and participate in the
administration of workshops and professional events tailored to the level of expertise and the needs
of the teachers. Teachers in teams build professional programmes that serve to promote excellence
in teaching and an allegiance to learning in the school community.
A culture in which teachers’ ideas emanating from reflective practice are acknowledged and
made use of has been considered as a tool for raising the level of trust in schools. This represents
a shift from static ready-made professional vehicles to more dynamic fora that better target school
members. Through these vehicles, teachers would be sharing in setting goals and direction for what
best suits their community. This has been considered by participants in this study to be a sign of
trust and respect as it indicates that their principals valued fittingly their view points.

One of the examples on how to build a culture of trust at school to promote teacher leadership is a strat-
egy that our principal has implemented via which our professional development is decided on by us
[teachers], attended by us and made use of in classrooms by us. (School C, teacher 1)

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Ghamrawi: Your School Can Be Better 345

Teachers who feel that their expertise is valued by their school tend to appreciate their school more;
so when you ask a teacher to prepare a workshop to be delivered to all members of the department, or
involve her in a study on a particular pedagogical issue or ask her to be responsible for a science fair
project . . . this is considered as a great privilege and a sign of trust. (School A, subject leader 3)

In this sense, the role of the principal lies in the development of school systems, processes, net-
works and structures that promote stewardship, build shared experiences and discourse, and boost
the effectiveness of teachers as practitioners. Active engagement in research on teaching and learn-
ing may also be useful.

Conclusion
Trust, which is a premise for teacher leadership establishment, lies at the heart of school improve-
ment. It is a source of self-efficacy, collaboration, commitment, collective vision and building a
strong sense of belonging to school members. Trust helps individuals and schools to overcome
rejection, failure, loss, fear, retribution, isolation and embarrassment. The elimination of these
attributes from the school system benefits the whole structure by creating an environment in which
all motivational needs are met. Curtailing dissatisfaction within the school system allows creativity
to flourish.
That trust, and its establishment in schools, is a complex issue seems to be clear through the
contradiction evident in the views of subject leaders and school principals. In fact, while one sub-
ject leader considers it important not to trust all teachers, the principal of the same school considers
it vital to distribute trust throughout the whole school community. In other words, trust is a con-
troversial issue and its implementation requires the careful examination of both the school context
and climate.
When the barrier of fear is removed, by virtue of trust, teachers’ educational perspectives cri-
tically enhance the process of improving the quality of teaching and the amount that students learn.
As evidenced by the teachers interviewed for this study. Teachers have frontline knowledge of
classroom issues and the culture of schools. With trust this frontline knowledge is given free rein
in the school system and lends it the momentum to improve.

Limitations, Implications and Future Research

As stated earlier, this study aimed at over viewing a concept that has never been approached earlier
in any previous research study in Lebanese schools through qualitative interviewing. The sample
comprised of only private schools makes it a non-representing sample of the Lebanese schools.
Public schools may have a totally different story to tell especially with the strict centralization
of these schools. Moreover, the number of researched private schools in itself is quite small, mak-
ing generalization weak and unreasonable. However, some generic messages to educators can be
made.
First, results of this study confirm what the literature states about teacher leadership; namely,
that high-quality relationships among teachers, on top of which comes trust, are crucial to the suc-
cess of promoting teachers as leaders within schools (Hargreaves, 1998; Bryk and Schneider,
2003). The study thus infers that principals may help establish teacher leadership overall by simply
attending to fundamental components inherent in quality relationships. Thus, it could be useful to

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346 Educational Management Administration & Leadership 39(3)

rethink the daily interpersonal interactions of a principal and the great impact they have on teachers
and school culture.
In other words, if it is true that teacher leadership lies at the heart of any educational reform
(Ofsted, 2000) and if trust is a premise for teacher leadership establishment, as this study confirms
and as the literature indicates (Harris and Muijs, 2005; Murphy, 2005), then, this study could
represent a strong memorandum to educators who are interested in educational reform. School
principals who are sensitive to building trust rather than demanding loyalty from their staff may
be impacting their schools very positively.
Second, parallel to the work of Buckner and McDowelle (2000), the study indicates that trust is
considered to be a tool to encourage teachers to work harder, be optimistic, feel a sense of
professionalism, model positive self-esteem, commitment and a sense of ownership. It is because
teachers who act as leaders are trusted in their schools by higher authorities; they tend to be risk-
oriented, striving for better standards in teaching and learning as they acquire a sense of ownership
over school practises.
Finally, this article contributes to the growing body of literature on trust. In fact, as stated ear-
lier, the most existing trust research is quantitative in nature, and the need exists for that which is
qualitatively designed (Bottery, 2003). Future research may aim at conducting a similar research
study in Lebanese public schools. Results may be of great use to policymakers at the MEHE. It
would be very useful to investigate the impact of teacher leadership on student learning. Moreover,
trust may be investigated differentially from the perspectives of various teacher groups at schools
so as to better understand its multi-faceted nature and thus understand how it is informed by cul-
tural, organizational, personal, sociological and psychological factors.

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Biographical Note
Norma Ghamrawi, PhD, is an associate professor of Education at the Faculty of Education - Leba-
nese University in Beirut, Lebanon. She lectures in Educational Management and Leadership and
her research interests include teacher leadership, school improvement and school effectiveness.

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