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Trust Matters Chapter Summary

Decent Essays

The author of Trust Matters, Megan Tschannen-Moran is a professor at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. She teaches courses in educational leadership and conducts research about relationships in school settings, specifically related to trust and efficacy. http://wmpeople.wmedu/site/page/mxtsch

In this book, trust is defined as “one’s willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable, and competent.” (page xiii) The author recognizes that trust is complex and dynamic. She views trust as the “lubricant” that greases the machinery of the organization. Trust is particularly important where parties are interdependent, or the “interests of one party cannot be achieve without reliance upon another.” In schools “teachers and principals are …show more content…

She interweaves examples of three principals from her research. These principals are from urban schools with high populations of low-income and minority students. The examples illustrate throughout the book how the actions of these principals developed or worked against developing trust. She analyzes these behaviors as related to each chapter topic.

The first three chapters of the book describe why trust in schools is important, define trust, and give ideas for cultivating trust. Then there are chapters on betrayal, revenge, teachers trusting one another, fostering trust with students and parents, and restoring trust. The final chapter outlines ideas for becoming a trustworthy leader. Appendix A has several surveys on trust. Each survey includes scoring directions and information about reliability and validity.

The purpose of Trust Matters is to give leaders in schools information about trust as well as ideas and tools to develop trust in schools and to become trustworthy

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