Partnership as a Product of Trust: Parent-Teacher Relational Trust in a Low-Income Urban School

• In Event: Roundtable Session 111
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Urban Education

Abstract

Parent-teacher relationships are often difficult to foster when parents and teachers are of different races, ethnicities, and social classes (Cooper, 2006). Trust is an important factor in these relationships. In urban schools, the lack of trust between parents and teachers is exacerbated by race and class differences (Bryk and Schneider, 2002). This paper will discuss a research study focused on how relational trust was both fostered and inhibited between low-income parents and their children’s teachers in one low-income urban school. Data was collected through a qualitative research design based in ethnographic methods. Preliminary results suggest that teacher demonstrations of care for a child and parent fulfillment of teacher expectations are the most crucial factors for building trusting parent-teacher partnerships.

Author

• Heather Chang, Temple University