Head Teachers’ Contribution to Building Culture of Trust in Public Schools in Kathmandu: An Ethnographic Study

Abstract

Trust is a fundamental component of a school's culture, and it influences how parents, students, teachers, head, and the community as a whole interact with each other. Scholarly publications rarely explore the pivotal role of the head teacher in building a culture of trust within Kathmandu's public schools. I aimed to explore contribution of head teachers in fostering trust within public schools by interpreting their leadership practices, commitment, strategies, problem solving and decision-making processes. Many studies on educational leadership and trust have been conducted globally; however, there is a lack of research in Nepal, particularly regarding the roles of head teachers in fostering trust within community schools. If we look at actual scenarios in Kathmandu's public schools, where social, cultural, and organizational variables are different from those in other educational systems where the gap can be seen. In my study, I have adopted ethnography as a methodological approach to understand the lived experiences of head teachers, teachers, parents, and members of the School Management Committee (SMC). I used reflective journaling, in-depth interviews, and prolonged field observation at two public schools of Budhanilkantha Municipality in Kathmandu to get the participants' points of view. For this study, I chose eight participants in total; two head teachers, two teachers, two parents, and two SMC chairpersons. Their experiences offered a helpful window into ongoing work of building and evaluating trust in public schools. I have analyzed the finding using Vygotsky’s Social-Culture Theory (1978) and Bass’s Transformational Leadership Theory (1985), as both theories highlight the role leadership plays in shaping trust and encouraging participation from the wider school community. The research identified ethical leadership, transparency in leadership, participatory decision –making, and proactive conflict resolution are important aspects in fostering trust. The findings indicate that Head teachers whose action fosters transparency, participatory decision making are ethical leaders since they promote teacher collaboration and encourage community trust. The results suggest that head teachers who maintain transparency, encourage participatory decision-making, and uphold ethical leadership contribute to stronger teacher cooperation and increased community trust. In educational institution if there is a hierarchical authority and not enough people are involved, it is very challenging for schools to keep the public's trust. The research interpretations indicated that trust-building is a dynamic and continuous process. Head teachers need to find a balance between making decisions and being responsible, having authority and being open to everyone and being a leader and being understanding. This research is concerned with how the leadership practices of head teachers would lead to the development of a culture of trust in the Kathmandu’s public schools. The understandings of this study indicate that a trust building leadership style is an effective and cost-efficient method for improving institutions. This kind of leadership slowly makes the school seem more trustworthy by improving the culture of the school, motivating teachers and getting stakeholders in the community involved. This research is explored at the problem of community losing trust in public schools, even though the government is trying to improve the quality of education. Leadership effectiveness is still inconsistent, and many head teachers don't know how to use participatory and trust-based methods correctly. So, the goals were to observe how head teachers’ leadership styles build trust and how these styles help change the culture of trust building in Kathmandu’s public schools.