As establishing and fostering trust are imperative activities for school leaders, cognizance of the fundamental importance of trust is essential for the leader’s moral agency and ethical decision-making. In this article, we use an ecological perspective to uncover the dynamics of the lifecycle of trust as evident from extant literature on leadership in general and educational leadership in particular. Upon describing the role of trust in leadership and moral agency, we outline the importance of trust in school organizations and describe its fragile nature. Furthermore, we review the pertinent literature with respect to lifecycle stages (most often overlapping and without any set boundaries) of establishing, maintaining, sustaining, breaking and restoring trust in educational settings. We conclude that understanding the dynamic nature and ecological lifecycle of trust is an important undertaking for school leaders because they, as moral agents, are called to model and mediate the pervasive trust-related processes in schools.

Early career teachers (ECTs) are situated in a dynamic contextual landscape that both influences their development and practice and dictates professional expectations for instruction and professional learning. This systematic review of international research literature sought to establish the understanding of teacher induction and mentoring program support of ECTs through the following research questions: 1) which nations and regions are represented in research literature that details formal or programmatic support of ECTs? 2) what international research evidence is there to describe various contextual factors that affect experiences of ECTs? and, 3) how do teacher induction and mentorship programs respond to the various contextual factors affecting ECTs? Upon detailing our review method and sampling procedures, we synthesize the convergences and divergences of the findings within each of the contextual factors. The conceptualization of contextual factors in this review included social, political, cultural, organizational, and personal forces that influence the professional practices of ECTs. Finally, we summarize the review findings in a heuristic model that offers a visual representation of the implications of our findings, and discuss the implications for policy, practice, and future research.

Our pan-Canadian research study examined the differential impact of teacher induction and mentorship programs on the early-career teachers’ retention. Using the results from a pan-Canadian Teacher Induction Survey (N = 1343), we compared ECTs’ experiences with induction, mentorship and career development within their first five years. Findings point to a shift in the needs of teachers within the first five years, suggesting that with time career supports and job satisfaction decrease and consideration of leaving the profession increases. Based on convergences and divergences across five years, we offer implications for policy, practice, and research.

As a fundamental concept in human interactions, trust is important for understanding and mediating the social structures in schools. The instrumental work of cultivating, brokering, and maintaining trust in schools lies within the role of the school administrator. Our exploratory study examined the Canadian school principals’ perceptions of their moral agency and trust-brokering roles in schools. Upon reviewing the literature on the imperative of trust in school settings, we offer a phenomenological analysis of selected research findings. These findings are based on the responses of Canadian school principals (N = 177) who had reflected on their lived experiences of the personal, relational, decisional, educational, organizational, and moral imperatives of trust for school leaders.