How Do Novice Headteachers Gain Parents’ Trust In Elementary Schools

Novice classroom teachers in elementary schools may encounter parental distrust after joining the classroom due to their low qualifications and experience.Obtaining parents’ trust is a necessary prerequisite for novice classroom teachers to successfully carry out educational activities and establish good parent-teacher relationships.The establishment of trust between novice classroom teachers and parents begins with the trust of new students,and as the interaction between them deepens,parents make the judgment of whether to trust novice classroom teachers based on their experience.Based on the social role theory,this study reveals the process of novice classroom teachers gaining parents’ trust from the perspective of novice classroom teachers,presents the problems of novice classroom teachers not being trusted by parents,analyzes the factors affecting parents’ trust in novice classroom teachers,and compiles materials to propose strategies for gaining parents’ trust.Based on the social role theory,we conducted in-depth interviews with novice classroom teachers from the aspects of role perception,role expectation,and role action to understand the interactive process of novice classroom teachers’ gaining parents’ trust.The study found that novice classroom teachers gained the trust of parents in three stages.First,the acquaintance stage.Parents were apprehensive about the novice classroom teacher due to stereotypes and were spying on each other during the first parent meeting.Second,the acquaintance stage.With the development of educational activities,parents focus on the novice classroom teacher’s ability in all aspects,but question and interfere with the novice classroom teacher’s work.Third,the getting-to-know-you stage.The parents,as a result of the positive interaction experience between the two parties,reach a double recognition of the novice classroom teacher’s ability and goodwill,and give the novice classroom teacher their trust.During this process,the novice classroom teacher’s problems of not being trusted by parents gradually emerged,including questioning professional competence,challenging professional philosophy,feeling of alienation from parents,poor home-teacher communication,and incidental blaming.It was shown through research that parents’ trust in novice classroom teachers is based on perceptions,competencies,and emotions.Parents develop trust in novice classroom teachers when they meet reasonable parental role expectations and exhibit appropriate role behaviors.The achievement of parental trust depends on the novice classroom teacher’s own professional competence,the training of the teacher training institution,and the support of the teaching school.