Collective trust, multidimensional teacher collaboration, and school improvement capacity: Structural pathways in a centralised system

Building school capacity for improvement under constrained autonomy is under-examined in effectiveness research, particularly in centralised systems. This study examines how collective trust is associated with teachers’ appraisals of school improvement capacity, both directly and indirectly through collaboration sub-dimensions, using social capital theory and the Dynamic Model of Educational Effectiveness. Data from 1,112 teachers in 36 schools were analysed using structural equation modelling with cluster-robust standard errors. Collective trust showed a substantial direct association with improvement-capacity appraisals (c′ = .57) and an indirect association through collaboration (total indirect = .21); professional-coordination carried the largest pathways (β = .08, .07). School-aggregated appraisals converged with an external achievement indicator (r = .42). Findings suggest that collective trust and collaboration function as relational preconditions for school-level improvement processes where formal autonomy is constrained.