Trust within Learning provides invaluable insight into the learning relationship between students and teachers, a complex and dynamic area of research. It achieves this aim by reimagining the role of trust in the various sectors of education and exploring its import. Devin Thornburg provides invaluable insight into the learning relationship between students and teachers, a complex and dynamically-changing area of research. It does this by re-imagining the way trust encompasses different sectors of education and its importance to what and how students learn. Through interviews with students and teachers in eight countries on four continents, the author investigates the role of trust across cultures, seeking to understand the value and meaning it has in each setting. The author uses a methodology of Affirmative Inquiry through the encounters with students and teachers about trust in learning, making the effort to establish a research framework of intercultural competence. His findings are organized to explore relationships, roles, expertise and the community and cultures of trust, resulting in conclusions about the influence of history and context of schooling in each country and possible implications for practitioners and scholars. In doing so, the book raises critical questions about the teaching of culturally diverse students in the U.S. and elsewhere. It therefore informs and acts as a critical companion to those engaged in the study of learning, teaching and school reform.
Industry Reviews
An inspiring book for educators offering many great lessons from around the world. Trust within Learning remarkably explores the role of culturally varied constructs of trust on student learning. It provides a unique conceptual shift in education from the transactional to the relational proposing new possibilities for better learning opportunities. -- Mustapha Aabi, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco
An accessible and intelligent critical companion for those studying education. Trust within Learning provides a reflective view of what is an essential component of learning, seen through the eyes of educators and students. I will certainly recommend the book to my students. -- Michael Reed, University of Worcester
In this thoughtful book, Devin Thornburg takes us around the world among students (and teachers) and shows us how, through their narratives, most students strive to be trusted and to insist that their voices are heard, and acted upon. As issues of trust may differ significantly across cultures, it is hoped, as Dr. Thornburg explains, that the "complex diverse experiences, the social interactions and the linguistic, historical and cultural contexts" through which all students learn illuminate how difficult yet crucial this undertaking becomes. This book comes at a most propitious time as there is a new level of distrust in increasingly populist governments and societies (and hence within learning) across the globe in the form of propaganda and "fake news" and helps us to sort out and be critical of what constitutes "trust" in the narratives all around us. -- Brett Elizabeth Blake, St. John's University
We all intuitively understand that trust is a core and essential component of all healthy and productive relationships, and the relationships that exist in our schools are no different. As we all are experiencing increasing racial and ethnic diversity in schools throughout our country, I wonder why this simple, yet complex, concept is not more deeply explored as a core element of student success? Dr. Thornburg offers us unique perspectives on the impact of trust across international and multicultural contexts- valuable perspectives that can help us nurture the power of empathic and trusting relationships in our own work in own schools and classrooms. -- Robert L. Jarvis, University of Pennsylvania
