Journal of Education and Training ISSN 2330-9709 2019, Vol.6, No.2 jet.macrothink.org 18 A Conceptual Framework for Trust-building to Promote Teacher Leadership Bryan S. Zugelder (Corresponding Author) Dept. of Elementary Education and Middle Grades Education, East Carolina University 154 Speight Building, Greenville, NC 27858, United States Tel: 1-252-737-1704 E-mail: zugelderb16@ecu.edu B. Grant Hayes Office of the Dean, East Carolina University 154 Speight Building, College of Education, Greenville, NC 278585, United States Tel: 1-252-328-4260 E-mail: hayesb15@ecu.edu Received: March 22, 2019 Accepted: April 8, 2019 Published: April 9, 2019 doi:10.5296/jet.v6i2.14530 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jet.v6i2.14530 Abstract This article proposes a conceptual framework for building trust between principals and teachers for the purpose of empowering teacher leaders within a school environment. While instructional leadership is the ultimate responsibility of the school principal, researchers have recognized they cannot perform alone. Therefore, it is necessary for principals to build trust with teachers. The concept of principal and teacher trust appears throughout educational leadership research; however, a clear conceptual framework which demonstrates a method for creating and ensuring trust can be used as a teaching tool in principal and teacher leadership preparation. Implications for research include testing and validating the framework, while investigating findings on its effectiveness. Keywords: Instructional leadership, Teacher leadership, Principal trust, Teacher trust, shared leadership 1. Introduction Teacher leadership is not confined to formal roles (Danielson, 2007). In fact, all teachers in one part of the United States are expected to demonstrate some level of teacher leadership to earn at least a proficient evaluation rating on the state’s teacher performance appraisal (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2013). Teacher leadership has come back to the forefront of conversations as a teacher retention strategy, especially as attrition continues to surface in nearly every corner of the nation. While providing teacher leadership can be used as a teacher retention strategy, empowering teachers to be leaders is a transformational leadership paradigm