Teachers’ Personality Traits that Promote Students’ Trust within an Inclusive Environment in the Classroom

Abstract

The implementation of inclusive teaching requires that teachers adapt their behavior and actions in such a way that they promote trust within an all-inclusive and supportive teaching and learning environment. This review chapter analyzes how teachers through their personality traits promote trust between themselves and students in order to promote an inclusive and supporting teaching and learning environment. The chapter will use Giddens Structuration Theory with reference to agency theory to understand how their personality traits as imbedded in their agency may either promote or hinder their ability to create trust and build inclusive and supportive environment in the classroom. In this chapter, some lessons from the literature review and analysis will be drawn and recommendations made. The main lesson drawn is that teachers’ personality traits are very important toward establishing trust between them and the student in an inclusive classroom. It is very important also to note that the application of teacher agency based on their personality trait may or may not create the conducive conditions for a pedagogy that is inclusive or constraining for the students.

1. Introduction

Inclusive education is an education provision that departs from a premise that students have to be taught in the same educative environment regardless of their background such as gender, disability, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and others [1]. The aim of inclusive education is to remove barriers to teaching and learning in order to widen the participation of all students [2]. Implementation of inclusive education is mostly dependent on the teacher’s ability to support the students in the classroom [3]. The ability of the teacher to support students may depend on his/her character and personality traits. Throughout literature, it has been found that the role of teachers in support of students is critical. However, while teachers are an authority in the classroom, they need to develop an atmosphere of trust that makes students feel free and secure to participate fully in the teaching and learning process. This chapter therefore asks the following guiding question: How do teacher’s personality traits promote students’ trust within the inclusive classroom?

In answering this question, the chapter provides insights into teacher’s personality traits that are needed in an inclusive classroom. Given the fact that an inclusive classroom is composed of students with disabilities and special needs, teachers have the responsibility to create a safe, inclusive, and conducive classroom atmosphere that ensures inclusivity and widens the participation of all students. Therefore, in this chapter, teachers are regarded as the most valuable resource for inclusion, and thus, their role as agents to apply agency in the educative process is crucial.

2. Method of review

This chapter reviewed literature in order to conceptualize the concepts of teachers’ personality traits, trust, and inclusive classrooms within inclusive pedagogy. The aim was to explore:

How do teacher’s personality traits promote students’ trust within the inclusive classroom?

The criteria used to select the literature were guided by the availability of supportive empirical evidence. Speculative kinds of literature were deliberately excluded. While the literature was reviewed for the purposes of a study focused on inclusive education, some of the reviewed work had inclined toward general educational student support and interventions as closely related disciplines such as psychology and sociology of education were considered.

We consulted a number of databases such as Eric, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Further sources of relevant information were internationally accredited journals. The Nazarbayev University library was consulted, and books, articles, theses, and electronic sources were perused for relevant, up-to-date literature on the topic.

3. Theoretical framework

In this chapter, we adopt structuration theory as a lens to understand the interaction of teachers and education as a social structure. Structuration theory assumes that individuals within social structures are in a dual relationship with social structure. Individual act as agents within the social structure using “agency” to navigate through their social activities, and on the other hand, social structures produce standard, values, and power that create a dynamic relationship. Giddens [4] refers to it as “duality,” meaning that individuals as agents through an agency may change and transform the structure while the structure may also have a constraining effect on agents [5]. For instance, Priestley, Biesta, and Robinson [6] postulate that teacher agency may be constrained by conditions of their work such as accountability measures and regulations. As a result, the role of teachers as agents within education as a social structure is significant as their use of agency may transform how education as a structure is configured. It is therefore crucial in this chapter to conceptualize and understand the notion of teacher agency as critical for change and transformation of education provision particularly in creating an inclusive education environment. The following Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between teachers, their agency, and education as a social structure.

Figure 1.

Duality between teacher agency and education structure.

The figure above demonstrates that teachers, through their agency, may influence the teaching environment (through either inclusive or exclusive practices). If the teacher’s practices are based on inclusive values, trust, and safety and promote inclusivity and belongingness, they will likely alter the education structure by producing inclusive standards. As a result, teacher agency places the teacher at the heart of the success of creating an inclusive education environment. According to Gulcin [7], there is a relationship between teacher agency and teacher aspects such as academic optimism, commitment to teaching, and teacher personality traits. However, it must be understood that the exercise of agency may depend on the teacher’s experience, self-awareness, and efficacy. Novice and non-self-aware teachers may have limited exercise of agency and thus not stimulate a positive environment. In this chapter, we therefore focus on teacher personality traits that may promote trust in an inclusive classroom to enable student support, engagement, and involvement in teaching and learning.

4. The notion of teacher personality trait

The notion of personality traits is understood to mean how people think, feel, and behave [8]. Soto [8] classifies personality traits into five categories (Table 1).

	Personality trait	Characteristics/Attributes
1	Extraversion	Social engagement Assertiveness Sociable Communication Positive emotions and enthusiasm Excitement Low on extraversion: noninvolvement, alienation
	Introversion	Emotionally and socially reserved; But good listeners, creative, and can overcome challenges
2	Agreeable	Respectfulness Acceptance for others Concern about emotional well-being of others Fair treatment of others Positive beliefs about others Low on agreeableness: egocentric, competitive, irritable, and overcommitment for others
	Disagreeable	Less considerate of others and social norms; Positive: Ambitious and may do more than others
3	Conscientiousness	Productive and responsible Prefer order and structure Work persistently to pursue goals Committed to duties Negative: overly workaholic, inflexible, and too serious
	Unconscientious	Unproductive, disorderly, and not goal-oriented
4	Neurotism (unstable emotions)	Frequent and intense emotions Experience anxiety, sadness, and mood swings Low on Neurotism: calm, less stressed, and relaxed
	Stable emotions	Calm and resilient
5	Openness to experience	Intellectually curious Esthetically sensitive and imagination Innovative Negative: impulsive, less practical, and risky behavior
	Close-minded	Narrow range of intellectual and creative interests; Negative: rigidity and unchangeable

Table 1.

Categories of personality traits.

It is essential to understand how the above mentioned traits may impact the teacher’s pedagogical character and thus impact his/her ability to exercise his/her agency and thus influence the creation of an inclusive education environment. According to Chimezie [9], there is a positive correlation between the teacher’s personality traits and effective teaching. For instance, in the work of Eryilmaz [10], personality traits that enhanced student inclusion were extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness.

Jurczak and Jurczak [11] assert that the openness of the teacher and his/her emotional involvement with the students and parents may enable a positive attitude needed to stimulate cognitive processes. Similarly, Khatri [12] postulates that extroverted, intuitive, rational, cooperative, warm, and trusting teachers are likely to impact students positively. On the other hand, Ibad [13] posits that teachers who are unapproachable, show less emotional intelligence, and communicate poorly are not in the position to create an atmosphere of epistemic trust. This view is echoed by Adewele [14], who contends that teachers’ knowledge, behavior, and communication are the most important personality constructs. The notion of trust becomes crucial in the teacher–student interaction.

5. The notion of trust

Arslan and Polat [15] define trust as the absence of fear, hesitation, or doubt. It is usually expressed emotionally in an interpersonal relationship. Trust is associated with helpfulness, openness, and honesty. As Platz [16] suggests, trust between the student and the teacher is vital as it cultivates what she calls “epistemic agency” (taking charge of one’s learning and personal improvement). Platz [16] postulates that trust is a relationship that indicates the extent to which one can rely on an individual. It is built over time and cannot be reduced to one incident, meaning trust is a learned behavior. It is a totality of attitudes, beliefs, and other mental states about the other person. In an educational context, “epistemic trust” is critical as it ensures that students may trust in the authenticity and validity of knowledge, relevance, trustworthiness, and generalizability. As Fonagy and Campbell [17] indicate, it enables social learning in a changing cultural and social context. McCraw [18] argues that epistemic trust includes four components, that is, belief, communication, reliance, and confidence. It is evident that in an education context, the teacher’s relationship of trust is managed from two angles, that is, epistemic agency and epistemic trust, which both produce independent learning (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Teacher’s role in epistemic trust and agency.

The teacher has to instill trust and confidence in the student in the process of teaching and learning. It is this kind of trust that may lead to the student being able to apply epistemic agency, which is the ability to take charge of the process of acquiring knowledge and validating and interpreting it. As a result, in an inclusive classroom, trust is of critical importance as it leads to a safe and inclusive environment that enables students to take charge of their own learning process. However, it must be noted that both students and teachers influence one another’s behavior and therefore the climate of trust. According to Kelin [19], teachers become more positive toward students if students’ behavior is positive. Similarly, Sherman and Cormier [20] postulate that positive student behavior could be taught, and as a result, the altruistic behaviors of both the teacher and student may cultivate an element of trust. This may also have a positive impact on student well-being, which is critical for safety and may promote trust.

6. The role of teachers in pedagogy

In order for teachers to promote trust, their personality trait must be able to embrace humanizing pedagogy. Inclusive pedagogy is understood to mean providing education through teaching and learning that ensures and widens the participation of all students in the classroom. In describing inclusive pedagogy, Makoelle [21] postulates that inclusive pedagogy goes beyond teachers’ pedagogical choices and practices; it also encompasses the teacher’s philosophical convictions, including beliefs, attitudes, and values. It means teachers should believe in inclusion to practice it. In his work, Makoelle [22] avers that teachers have to have empathy and be able to put themselves in students’ shoes. When teachers embrace inclusive values, they will likely instill confidence and trust in the students. According to Danescu [23], a teacher’s personality should not be rigid, but be flexible to allow him/her to practice differentiated pedagogy that can enable him/her to embrace change and respect differences. In the work of Bartolome [24], working with minority students in the US, it is stated that any pedagogy that ignores (intentionally or unintentionally) the sociohistorical, political, and cultural context of students is likely not to yield positive results. For instance, in circumstances where teachers’ attitudes toward minority students were condescending and pitiful and instilled fear, indifference, and apathy, the result was negative as students felt unwelcomed. According to Kajee [25] quoting Bartolomé [24], “a humanizing pedagogy promotes respect, trusting relationships between teachers and students, academic rigor and learning contexts where teachers and students share power. It furthermore, values students’ background knowledge, language, culture, and life experiences.” The teacher’s pedagogical approach is tied to his/her personality traits. The following Figure 3 illustrates the relationship.

Figure 3.

Teacher personality and inclusive pedagogy.

The above illustration shows that the personality traits of the teacher influence the application of teacher agency. As a result, if those are positive, they are likely to enable the teacher to produce a classroom atmosphere and conditions that promote an inclusive pedagogy. On the other hand, if the teacher’s personality traits are negative, they are likely to produce a dehumanizing pedagogy that does not build trust and confidence among the students. The following Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between negative personality traits and pedagogy.

Figure 4.

Negative teacher personality traits and pedagogy.

On the other hand, negative teacher personality traits may impact the way the teacher applies his/her agency, thus creating a hostile educative environment that produces conditions for a dehumanizing pedagogy, which constrains student’s epistemic agency. The environment is infested with distrust and lack and an imbalance in power relations between the teacher and the students.

While the discussion above has identified teachers’ personality traits and presented them as though one teacher might have all in a specific category, it must be borne in mind that teachers might exhibit some of those traits or have a mix of others. This might depend on several variables. Therefore, it is prudent to understand nuances in the teachers’ categorization of personality traits.

7. Lessons from the review

In this review, several lessons are drawn. It can be concluded that to ensure an inclusive environment in the classroom between the teacher and students, both have to exhibit personality traits that allow the application of agency that enables trust. Trust is a byproduct of a relationship based on values of tolerance, acceptance, empathy, and mutual support. It is therefore important for teachers to reflect on their behavior and keep themselves in check about the extent to which they inspire trust and confidence in the classroom. As a result, ensuring a relationship of trust is critical for the creation of an inclusive atmosphere at the school.

Positive teacher personality traits enhance academic optimism and ensure student commitment to learning responsibilities. The review exposes the five key personality traits to which teachers may belong. As a result, we learn that teachers have to be self-aware and able to determine their personality characteristics on the continuum from positive to negative. Reflexivity in actions may prevent the abuse of power and direct teachers’ energy into positive but supportive behavior. It is evident that to ensure an inclusive classroom environment, an inclusive pedagogy is a prerequisite. Teachers may be able to practice an inclusive pedagogy if their personality traits are congruent with the ideals of inclusion. Therefore, teachers’ personality traits must both enable epistemic trust and ensure students can apply their epistemic agency. It is also important to note that lack of epistemic trust and constraint of epistemic agency may lead to a dehumanizing pedagogy, which may produce an environment of mistrust that may create conditions for disablement of students. It is evident from the review that enabling trust from teachers is based on three (3) cardinal pillars:

The above Figure 5 implies that to enhance trust, the teacher has to act in a particular way. The following Table 2 summarizes factors that may enable and disable trust in the classroom:

Figure 5.

Cardinal pillars of trust in the classroom.

Pillar	Enabling	Disabling
Agency	Enabling an epistemic agency of students; Inculcating an epistemic trust; Being reflexive, critical, and self-aware about one’s role; Conscious of teacher–student power relations.	Rigidity and inflexibility; Authoritarianism; Rigid and unfair application of rules and regulations.
Behavior	Instilling inclusive values; Motivating and teaching hope and optimism; Promoting collaboration, cooperation, and belongingness; Enabling student voices; Supportive and ensuring well-being.	Allowing negative behavior to thrive in the classroom; Discrimination, favoritism, and sarcasm; Repressive and subjugating behavior.
Pedagogy	Ensuring a culturally sensitive and responsive pedagogy; Being aware of student’s sociocultural and socioeconomic conditions; Applying empathy within the humanizing pedagogy; Applying student-centered pedagogy.	Ignorance or less knowledgeability about student’s background; Allowing cultural bias and stereotypes; Being selfish.

Table 2.

Factors enabling and disabling Trust in the Classroom.

8. Conclusion

Teachers are the implementers of inclusive education in the classroom. This chapter aimed to demonstrate that teacher personality traits are important in promoting a relationship of trust between them and students if inclusion was to be attained. This chapter has argued that the relationship between teachers’ personality trait and their ability to apply their agency to create an enabling environment is important. The significance of this duality was illustrated by analyzing the role of teachers in pedagogy. While this is a review paper and does not make any reference to empirical data, it serves as contributing to the discussion about the extent to which teacher personality traits play a role in the creation of conditions of trust in the classroom, which are fundamental for an inclusive education condition to be created. While we analyze this from a literature review, we are also mindful that personalities may also develop as a result of cultural differences, and thus, this must be taken into account when dealing with personality traits.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes/thanks/other declarations

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