Abstract

This chapter examines the levels of trust in school in Chile. Throughout the lasts couple of decades, the concept of trust has been explored in schools gaining prominence given the relationship found between trust levels and school performance, student’s outcomes, and teacher professionalism. Given the importance of building a space in which learning happens, we study trust within school organizations and their institutional environment. We used the Trust Connection Questionnaire applied previously on an international study (Fink, Trust and verify: the real keys to school improvement. Institute of Education Press, 2016) to ask teachers and school leaders about their trust levels in broader sample. More than 300 participants responded. In a mixed methods approach, we later conducted semi-structured interviews with principals from public and private institutions. This is the first study in Chile to understand the extent to which trust is found in schools and the factors influencing the levels of trust. We further connected the social and historical events in our recent history to explain how certain contextual and institutional environment may influence trust as well (COVID pandemic and recent social outburst). We found that trust is highly valued as a condition for school improvement, where leaders are depicted as important actors in its promotion.