December 4, 2025Open Access

A taxonomy of trust in education: With a lens to magnify the limitations of hierarchical foundations of trust, and a key to solve the puzzle of children’s trust in teaching

FFFederico Farini ASAngela Scollan FFFederico Farini

Key Points

Trust is reframed in education as children gain self-determination, fostering active citizenship.
The article highlights the role of education in constructing trust dynamics and addressing inequities.
Analysis of relational trust underscores its importance for genuine engagement in educational settings.
A shift towards viewing children as knowledge contributors promotes trust beyond traditional hierarchies.

Abstract

This article discusses a taxonomy of trust in education, against the challenge of a paradoxical relationship between inclusiveness and selectivity of the education system. From the 17th century, the cultural form of “childhood” has appeared in European modernity and its global ramifications. No other social system has been more fascinated by the child’s journey into adulthood than education. The first part of the article discusses the social construction of the pupil as educational persona replacing the child as the reference for curricula based on the intersection between standardised stages of development, standardised contents and standardised teaching techniques. The article continues proposing a reflection on the implications of the invention of the pupil for children’s trusting commitments in education, arguing that a hierarchical positioning between teachers and pupil based in unequal epistemic status supports types of trust, trust based on expertise and trust based on categorical inequalities that are conducive of pupils and teachers’ trust, but fail to support children’s trusting commitments, because the hierarchical positioning between teachers and pupil is component of a semantic of education centred on role performances, rather than expectations of personal contributions. Developing Giddens and Luhmann’s sociological work on trust, the article introduces of a third type of trust, personal trust. The viability of personal trust in education is discussed in the context of the ongoing transformation of the intergenerational order towards the recognition of children’s self-determination as a resource, rather than a risk, for education. As educationalists from a wide range of disciplines are challenging top-down models of transmission of knowledge, a position of children as authors of valid knowledge in the education system allows trust-building processes that are relational and based on the promotion of active citizenship, reducing the risk of alienation intrinsic to trust based on expertise and trust based categorical inequalities.

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