We argue that teacher autonomy should be conceptualised differently from its current form, that confines teacher autonomy to the individual, or to freedom from control. Here, we investigate the role of trust concerning teachers’ perceptions of their own autonomy, embedded in differing contexts and relations. To display contextual variations, we study qualitatively a sample of Canadian and Finnish upper-secondary school mathematics teachers. Our findings reveal that trust plays a decisive role in whether teachers feel autonomous or not, and that trust plays a central role in relationships teachers have at work. Furthermore, trust is articulated differently according to the teachers’ context. Based on our findings, we argue that a reconceptualisation of teacher autonomy is needed. A relational conceptualisation of teacher autonomy, highlights its inherent relationality and contextual sensitivity, provides new insight into the teachers’ work, and supports more empowering ways for teachers to exert a proactive influence on their autonomy.

中文翻译：

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建立对教师自治的关系理解：信任对加拿大和芬兰教师的作用

我们认为，教师自治的概念应不同于其当前形式，即将教师自治限于个人或不受控制的范围。在这里，我们研究信任在教师对自己的自主权的理解中所扮演的角色，这种理解嵌入了不同的上下文和关系中。为了显示上下文差异，我们定性地研究了加拿大和芬兰的高中数学老师的样本。我们的研究结果表明，信任对于教师是否感到自主具有决定性的作用，而信任在教师工作中的关系中起着核心作用。此外，根据教师的背景，信任的表达方式也有所不同。根据我们的发现，我们认为需要对教师自治进行重新概念化。教师自治的关系概念化，