l has extensive experience leading inclusion in specialist and mainstream schools across primary and secondary settings. She is embarking on a new phase of her career to share her experience and learnings to support others in their inclusive practice. about her book.
In an educational climate with a pressing need to reconsider behaviour and inclusion agendas, a pedagogy of relational trust is highly apposite.
What is relational trust?
Relational trust is a reciprocal development process which forms a coherent, teachable theory, enabling shared understanding and practical application (Byrnell 2025). Given sufficient demonstration of a range of affective and evaluative components, trust develops when individuals choose to risk making something they value vulnerable to the words and actions of others (Feltman 2009). Vulnerability and trust are therefore inseparable because without risk or uncertainty, trust is a misnomer (Brown 2012). This requirement for vulnerability in the process of trust development is a stumbling block which has arguably been insufficiently explored and unhelpfully subsumed into a deficit discourse about systemically vulnerable students. However once the implications of relational vulnerability - a defining human characteristic - are fully grasped, the implications for pedagogy are compelling.
Why does vulnerability matter so much?
Research points to teacher-student trust as fundamental to learning because learning is a vulnerable process which can induce significant levels of risk, uncertainty, and anxiety in students (Byrnell 2025). Relational trust between teachers and students acts as a conduit to mitigate vulnerability arising from students making mistakes, not understanding, feeling stupid, fearing failure, sharing ideas or teacher and peer reactions. Every day, students either choose or refuse to risk making their learning vulnerable to teachers’ words and actions. Subsuming the term vulnerability into a deficit discourse about disadvantaged students therefore obscures from schools, the function it plays in generative life processes such as courage, creativity or change.
Moreover, teaching itself is an inherently vulnerable profession involving relational risk and uncertainty on a daily basis (Kelchtermans 2009). If trust is lacking, the use of a range of defensive behaviours in response to vulnerability is common. The cultures most at risk of trust breakdown and misuse of power are those where hierarchical structures and status differentials are the norm (Brown 2018). These power asymmetries increase the risk of distrust, or abuse of trust, arising from unreciprocated vulnerability and inadequate accountability.
For students with systemic vulnerabilities, regular use of self-defence mechanisms can become labelled as persistent disruptive behaviour unless the underlying vulnerability, which may be shame related, is met with empathetic, non-judgemental responses. Even young children can be adept at work avoidance and sometimes learn from an early age to respond to vulnerability with disadvantageous consequences. Thus it is vital to ensure that practitioners take the lead in modelling reciprocal trust practice to avoid the pitfalls of invulnerability and distrust.
How does a pedagogy of trust benefit educators?
School cultures rich in trust point to organisational success across multiple domains; perhaps most salient is the impact of relational trust on teacher agency and student learning. Research points to increased engagement, motivation, confidence, memory, and concentration when students trust their teachers (Byrnell 2025). A pedagogy of trust resonates well with the concept of ‘continual emotion-cognition both in the simplest forms of learning and exploration, and in higher-order cognition interaction’ (Izard 2009).
Trust is not some soft, abstract factor which can be left to chance, it is an actionable asset with identified components advancing learning and empowerment through authentic vulnerable connection with others. With trust research gaining organisational traction, is it time for educators to focus attention on trust as a pedagogical imperative, creating optimum conditions for inclusivity and human thriving on a scale that educators can genuinely dare to dream of?
Take home points:
- Trust and vulnerability are inseparable.
- Teaching and learning are vulnerable processes.
- Invulnerability is a barrier to trust development.
- Reciprocal trust development is essential for learning, inclusivity and human thriving.
- Byrnell VH (2025) ‘Inclusivity and Trust in the Classroom: Helping the Child in Front of You to Learn and Thrive’, Routledge UK.elpiHe
- Feltman C (2009) ‘The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work’, Thin Book Publishing Co.
- Kelchtermans G (2009) ‘Who I Am in How I Teach Is the Message: Self-Understanding, Vulnerability and Reflection’, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, Vol. 15, No 2, pp.257-272
- Brown B (2012) ‘Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way we Live, Love, Parent and Lead’, Gotham Books, ISBN 978-1592408412
- Brown B (2018) ‘Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts’, Penguin Random House UK, ISBN-13 978-1785042140
- Izard CE (2009, p18), ‘Emotion Theory and Research: Highlights, Unanswered Questions, and Emerging Issues’, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 60, pp. 1-25.