The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' capacities and the role trust plays in the professional lives of teachers during the transition to a new team of three administrators in an elementary school located in a low-income urban community in the United States. Twenty-seven teachers' surveys and interviews showed that the transition caused some level of instability and uncertainty; however, teachers had a positive sense of efficacy, social capital, resilience, and emotions. The four themes that emerged from the interviews-common goals and vision for students, beliefs in colleagues' competence, emotional safety and comfort, and being vulnerable with colleagues-appear to function as conditions to build trust among colleagues. The trusting relationships seem to help teachers withstand the challenging transition by providing a safe space where teachers can learn and grow. Implications for school administrators and district offices were discussed.

This case study investigates how teachers in a school with a large population of low-income students of color in the U.S. perceived students’ cultural capital and associated teachers’ roles. Twenty-seven teachers were interviewed and discussed four domains of cultural capital mismatch between students and teachers: behavioral, experiential, academic, and family norm. Teachers often characterized these misalignments as students’ deficits and undertook parenting or friendship roles. This study highlights the need to support and train pre-service and in-service teachers’ critical consciousness, so that teachers leverage students’ cultural tools to enhance instruction and to counteract deficit views of students of color.

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