Learning to trust: the implications of sorting and segregating students in schools and school systems

Schools are important places for the development of trust; they provide students with opportunities for contact with significant others and to learn how to interact with peers that come from different backgrounds. Social mixing in schools can, under certain conditions, improve trust between different ethnic and socio-economic groups, while a high level of interconnectedness between different groups provides fertile ground for the development of generalised trust. This chapter describes the ways in which education systems can promote the development of in-group and out-group trust as well as generalised trust. It argues that many contemporary education systems provide too few opportunities for trust development. Examples are provided of the ways in which the sorting and categorising of students into different school buildings, educational tracks, or learning groups lead to unequal opportunities, create markers for those who are considered normal or abnormal, and positions students on a social hierarchy.