Trust

Trust is a firm belief in another’s reliability, abilities, and capacities to grow in a positive way. It is necessary for healthy human development and crucial in any relationship because without it, we truly would be completely alone as individuals. Instilling trust is a great part of creating friendships and relationships and without it we would not have anyone. The absence of trust or directly not trusting the learner is particularly damaging to learners because the learner relies on the teacher's positive faith in them to provide the security they desire.

Trust establishes a sense of faith and confidence in someone in a positive light. The idea of trust is to provide a sense of security or reassurance that no matter what, that person will provide you with positivity and encouragement. It is a risk that is taken by an individual and their trustee in hopes of a sincere bond between each other.

“Trust is a particular kind of risk that also requires ‘ethical courage’ and ‘strength of souls.’ Trust involves the risk of yielding oneself into the hands of the one trusted.” (O’Hara, p.88)

Trust is so critical in the relationship between teacher and learner because the teacher is entrusted to provide an education and the basic skills needed for the learner to succeed. The role of trust is to provide faith in the learner via the teacher, in which the teacher must first take the risk to trust the learner. If the learner senses insincerity from their teacher, they are more likely to shy away and actually do poorer with that teacher. A teacher has been placed in the classroom in order to propel the student forward; but if the teacher does not care, neither will the student and that will discourage the student from wanting to continue to learn from that teacher.

An example of trust can be found in Chapter 7 in O’Hara 2015. In this chapter, a trusting teacher learner relationship is represented by Lauren and her chorus teacher. Lauren has been let down by previous teachers because they were not able to see beyond her handicap. Her chorus teacher could be trusted by Lauren to make sure that performance locations would be wheelchair accessible. He also made sure that Lauren was treated like an equal with her peers in the classroom by not treating her differently, except in the effort to meet her own individual needs