Abstract :
[en] Education plays a vital role in shaping social realities by promoting dialogue, solidarity, mutual
understanding, and positive social interactions. However, some pedagogical approaches are
believed to not shoulder the responsibility to counter current social, economic, and political
forces in Europe and beyond that present challenges in terms of social cohesion and ways of
living together. This study contributes to recent debates concerning a change of dominant school
practices by recognising learning and teaching as collaborative processes between teachers and
students and trust as a central element in education. Despite the interest in and positive appraisal
of trust in education, little attention has been paid to concrete teaching practices and strategies
on how to implement trust in learning and teaching. A case study of a multilingual theatre project
of a primary school class and a video ethnographic approach allowed to explore details of
classroom practices, (inter-)actions, and activities. This research set out to explore four questions:
(a) What are “signs of trust” in an educational context?; (b) How and in what ways can a teacher
build, maintain, or strengthen trust?; (c) How and in what ways can “signs of trust” shape
interactions in the classroom?; (d) How can “sings of trust” be analysed?
As a result of more than 80 hours of video-recorded participant observations and
interview data, the results of this investigation show that the classroom teacher continuously
and consistently maintained a work environment based on six attributes of trust identified in
the literature: vulnerability, benevolence, reliability, competence, honesty, and openness. Most
importantly, she valued and promoted responsibility, autonomy, collaboration, and peer support.
The teacher’s verbal and non-verbal trustworthy and trusting behaviour is then interpreted as
the driving force behind the pupils’ engagement as active, competent, and reliable partners in
all aspects of the theatre project. In fact, the pupils signalled ownership of their learning,
proactively and independently engaged with the curriculum, and positively oriented towards each
other’s relationships and competences.
Despite the exploratory nature and small sample of participants, the findings of this
study highlight that education imbued with trust offers opportunities of growth for both teachers
and students. Moreover, the data suggests that the achievement and maintenance of trust can be
seen as a collaborative effort involving all members of the classroom community and facilitated
by a myriad of meaning-making resources (verbal, non-verbal, with objects, even a simple look
in the eye or a smile). If the debate about the value of trust for all learners is to be moved forward,
a better understanding of the wider impacts on personal and social lives needs to be gained.
