A time for benevolence. Trust between students and faculty at Chilean public high schools during the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID crisis has caused that the way of teaching classes in schools must be reinvented, but it has also transformed other dimensions of relationship between teachers and students. This article collects qualitative information regarding how high school teachers have developed actions to interact with their students, as well as the vision that the latter have regarding whether said actions increased their trust in them. The information was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted online with 36 teachers and 36 students in 6 selected public high schools in Santiago Chile. The analysis distinguished the actions developed by teachers to support students regarding material deprivation of their families or their emotional affectation, and others that promote remote academic activities. The results show that, along with restricting interactions destined for classes, teachers opened or intensified virtual opportunities for individualized relationships around dimensions of the students' lives that were usually left out of face-to-face interaction. The actions that most managed to advance student trust in their teachers were linked to benevolence, and their concern for their personal situation or that of their classmates. It is more doubtful, however, that greater trust has developed in terms of the competence of teachers to promote academic learning.