The Project

Over the past two years, we have conducted research at four institutions  spanning three countries, refining our instruments and identifying contextual influences that shape how students experience and view trust. The initial findings show both strong cross-contextual consistency in the four dimensions of trust previously identified by Felton et al. (2023) and meaningful variations informed by cultural norms, disciplinary conventions, institutional structures, and sociopolitical environments. 

The importance of trust for equitable and inclusive learning environments, and the emerging evidence that trust may operate differently across cultural contexts, speaks to the urgent need to expand this work collaboratively across regions, institutions, and languages. 

Phase 1 of this project is currently in the manuscript draft process and includes data from California Baptist University (USA), Dalhousie University (CAN), Elon University (USA), and Victoria University of Wellington (NZ).

Phase 2 of this project expands this work to additional institutions currently in the data collection phase and includes Virginia Commonwealth University (USA), Texas Women's University (USA), and Indiana University (USA).

We are now expanding this work with another wave of recruitment and currently collecting interest for Phase 3 of the project. If you are interesting in joining The Trust Collaborative, please reach out to Get Involved.