Narratives of trust, accountability and autonomy in Welsh education
type: CreativeWork
description: The need to establish and support high-trust professional relationships in schools has been re-affirmed frequently over the past twenty years. A broad range of research outputs, from different contexts, have concluded that the creation and maintenance of high-trust relationships in schools should be central systemic concerns. Trust, then, as a beneficial organisational concept, generally has uncontested status. Yet, it is still being widely identified as a concept in danger in many school systems. In part, notions that low-trust cultures are persisting, are themselves bolstered by fears that certain types of accountability structures and processes may have a negative impact on trust within schools. In addition, low-trust cultures have been linked to the re-configuration of professional autonomy for teachers in some school systems. Here, existing research suggests that restrictions on professional autonomy can lead to reduced perceptions for teachers of being trusted to fulfil the important social function of educating young people. This project notes the links between trust, accountability and autonomy, and also notes the importance of exploring these concepts in different contexts. There are important contextual variations between, for example, accountability systems and cultural norms of teacher autonomy. The project sets out to develop a more detailed understanding of the ways in which trust, accountability and autonomy are represented in Wales at this moment in time. It does so specifically because the Welsh education system is engaged in a period of significant reform and review. Many of the intended reforms are directly related to trust, accountability and autonomy. The project explores the interview responses of twelve secondary school teachers across Wales, using a model of narrative inquiry to examine their individual stories of trust, accountability and professional autonomy. Each narrative is analysed to investigate the ways in which the participants expe…
abstract: The need to establish and support high-trust professional relationships in schools has been re-affirmed frequently over the past twenty years. A broad range of research outputs, from different contexts, have concluded that the creation and maintenance of high-trust relationships in schools should be central systemic concerns. Trust, then, as a beneficial organisational concept, generally has uncontested status. Yet, it is still being widely identified as a concept in danger in many school systems. In part, notions that low-trust cultures are persisting, are themselves bolstered by fears that certain types of accountability structures and processes may have a negative impact on trust within schools. In addition, low-trust cultures have been linked to the re-configuration of professional autonomy for teachers in some school systems. Here, existing research suggests that restrictions on professional autonomy can lead to reduced perceptions for teachers of being trusted to fulfil the important social function of educating young people. This project notes the links between trust, accountability and autonomy, and also notes the importance of exploring these concepts in different contexts. There are important contextual variations between, for example, accountability systems and cultural norms of teacher autonomy. The project sets out to develop a more detailed understanding of the ways in which trust, accountability and autonomy are represented in Wales at this moment in time. It does so specifically because the Welsh education system is engaged in a period of significant reform and review. Many of the intended reforms are directly related to trust, accountability and autonomy. The project explores the interview responses of twelve secondary school teachers across Wales, using a model of narrative inquiry to examine their individual stories of trust, accountability and professional autonomy. Each narrative is analysed to investigate the ways in which the participants expe…
author: Hutt, Matt
language: eng
keywords: trust, accountability, autonomy, narrative
date published: 2020-10-1
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:39:51Z
provider: University of South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of South Wales