Lost Trust? The Experiences of Teachers and Students during Schooling Disrupted by the Covid-19 Pandemic - Recommendations for restoring trust

Oct 15, 2026

Lost Trust? examines how relational trust between students and teachers evolved amid emergency distance and flexible hybrid education in Serbia during 2020. It analyzes 581 narratives written by 136 students and 117 teachers from 22 schools, using a multi-genre dynamic storytelling approach. Results show how disrupted role enactment undermined trust, creating helplessness, disengagement from learning, and heavy workload for teachers. It also outlines positive outcomes and offers recommendations for restoring trust through negotiated, locally attentive perspectives.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Context and impacts of Covid-19 on schooling

Research aim and methods

Relational trust and role expectations

Multi-genre dynamic storytelling approach

Data and analysis

Narrative genres and participants

Codes and relational trust mechanisms

Findings

Trust disruption effects on students and teachers

Opportunities for restoration

Recommendations

doi: 10.26529/cepsj.1150 Lost Trust? The Experiences of Teachers and Students during Schooling Disrupted by the Covid-19 Pandemic Tijana Jokić Zorkić*1, Katarina Mićić2 and Tünde Kovács Cerović2 • This paper aims to help understand how relational trust between students and teachers embedded in the teaching-learning process unfolded during the emergency distance and flexible hybrid education in Serbia in 2020. It also identifies niches in student-teacher relationships that hold potential for repairing and building trust. For the student-teacher relationship tobe trust-based and thus conducive to students’ learning and wellbeing, a consensus about role expectations must be achieved. As the Covid-19 crisis interrupted schooling and education, participants faced uncertainties and ambiguities in role enactment, and the cornerstones of relational trust were disrupted. In an effort to understand 1) the context in which trust was challenged, 2) the ways in which trust was disrupted, and 3) the opportunities for its restoration, we relied on a multi-genre dynamic storytelling approach to data collection and values analysis for data processing. A total of 136 students and 117 teachers from 22 schools wrote 581 narratives in three genres: stories, letters and requests. The analysis yielded 22 codes that allowed further understanding of how changes in structural and institutional conditions affected both students’ and teachers’ expectations of each other, and how incongruence of these expectations fed into feelings of helplessness for both students and teachers, disengagement from learning for students, and heavy workload and poor performance for teachers. In addition, the narratives account for positive outcomes when these expectations were met, and for opportunities for trust-building if students’and teachers’ perspectives are brought to each other’s attention and negotiated locally. Finally, recommendations for restoring trust are given. Keywords: disruption of relational trust, remote and hybrid education during the pandemic, dynamic storytelling, analysis of narratives, students’ and teachers’ perspectives 1 *Corresponding Author. Centre for Education Policy, Serbia; [tijana.z.jokic@gmail.com](tijana.z.jokic@gmail.com). 2 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. 196 lost trust? the experiences of teachers and students during schooling ... Izgubljeno zaupanje? Izkušnje učiteljev in učencev med šolanjem, ki ga je prekinila pandemija covida-19 Tijana Jokić Zorkić, Katarina Mićić and Tünde Kovács Cerović • Namen prispevka je pomagati razumeti, kako se je odnosno zaupanje med učenci in učitelji, vgrajeno v proces poučevanja in učenja, razvijalomed izrednim izobraževanjem na daljavo in prilagodljivim hibridnimizobraževanjem v Srbiji leta 2020. Opredeljuje tudi situacije v odnosihmed učenci in učitelji, ki imajo potencial za obnovo in krepitev zaupanja. Da bi odnos med učencem in učiteljem temeljil na zaupanju ter tako pripomogel k učenju in dobremu počutju učencev, je treba doseči soglasje o pričakovanjih glede vlog. Ker je kriza covida-19 prekinila šolanje in izobraževanje, so se udeleženci spoprijeli z negotovostjo in dvoumnostjo pri uveljavljanju vlog, porušeni pa so bili tudi temelji odnosnega zaupanja. Da bi razumeli kontekst, v katerem je bilo zaupanje postavljeno pod vprašaj, načine, na katere je bilo porušeno, in priložnosti za njegovo ponovno vzpostavitev, smo se pri zbiranju podatkov oprlina večvrstni pristop dinamičnega pripovedovanja zgodb, pri obdelavipodatkov pa na analizo vrednot. Skupaj 136 učencev in 117 učiteljev iz 22 šol je napisalo 581 pripovedi treh vrst: zgodbe, pisma in prošnje. Analiza je dala 22 kod, ki so omogočile nadaljnje razumevanje, kako so spremembe strukturnih in institucionalnih pogojev vplivale na medsebojna pričakovanja učencev in učiteljev ter kako se je neskladnost teh pričakovanj odrazila v občutkih nemoči pri učencih in učiteljih, neudeležbi pri učenju pri učencih t

FAQs

What is the main focus of the paper on teacher-student relationships?

The paper focuses on how relational trust between students and teachers unfolds during emergency distance and flexible hybrid education disrupted by Covid-19.

How was the data collected and analyzed?

A multi-genre dynamic storytelling approach collected 581 narratives (stories, letters, and requests) from students and teachers, followed by values analysis and coding.

What effects did disrupted trust have on students and teachers?

Disrupted role enactment and incongruent expectations contributed to helplessness and disengagement for students, and to heavy workload and poor performance for teachers.

What opportunities and recommendations does the paper provide for rebuilding trust?

When students’ and teachers’ perspectives are brought to each other’s attention and negotiated locally, the narratives describe opportunities for trust-building, and the paper concludes with recommendations for restoring trust.

Oct 15, 2026

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