Book Review
Tschannen-Moran, Megan. (2004) Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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 interdependent in their shared project of educating the students in their schools. As such, they are vulnerable to one another.” Understanding trust and becoming a trustworthy leader in schools is the focus of this book.
In Trust Matters, the author draws upon a review of forty years of research on trust and her own research in over 300 schools, both elementary and secondary. 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 leaders.
Trust is further defined/described through four different “facets.”
· Benevolence: (caring and caring about the relationship) confidence that one’s well being will be protected by another
· Honesty: can rely on the other person to keep his/her word (integrity- do what you say you will do, tell the truth, keep promises), (character), (authenticity-accept responsibility for own behavior)
· Openness: share information, influence, and control
· Reliability: consistency, (predictability- reliability plus dependability)
· Competency: ability to perform task as expected to an appropriate standard
The author builds on this foundation of understanding to explore the more complex aspects of trust. This is done in the context of educational leadership. Leaders in schools have a key role in building a culture of trust in their school. “Trust in schools can be fostered or diminished by the behavior of the leader.” The examples from research build a strong case for this perspective.
This book provides essential, and usable, information about trust in schools. The book presents complex information is a very readable manner. It would be an excellent candidate for a leadership team book study. There are questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter which book study participants should find useful. Anyone in a leadership position in education should find Trust Matters a valuable resource.