Trust is the essence of all social relations in our lives. Trust is the necessary element for people to rely on the institutions implementing reforms. In post- communist societies the level of trust is lower than in Western democracies. It is determined not only by diminished sources of trust during the authoritarian rule but by rapid societal changes and the lack of new stable fundaments for trust. Distrust is not the opposite of trust but rather a rational state of mind in certain contexts and situations. Misbalance between trust and distrust in education is represented by the model of change dominating in the country: is it a professional model based on trust in people or production model based on trust in forms, regulations and functions (Fink, 2016). Since the “Singing Revolution” almost 30 years ago Lithuanian society and public education experienced an especially rapid and contradictory ideological, social and political transformation. The foundations of the new independent state were built on the ruins of Soviet legacy; it was also affected by social transformations, global economic, political and cultural influences. This is reflected by the opposing forces of the social-democratic principle of “education for all” and neoliberal access as well as the shift of educational goals from sociocultural to economic instrumental goals. Contradictive trajectories of change are represented not only in political decisions of the reform but in professional biographies of educators. Practitioners are becoming “objects” of political requirements which affect their authentic professional life (Silova&Brehm, 2013). The author is investigating the context of social and political change and the dynamics of trust among educational practitioners using a life history approach (Goodson&Gill, 2011) by interviewing ten experienced teachers and school leaders with rich and non-linear professional biographies. These life narratives represent significant changes of educational policy, as well as lived experience and different dimensions of trust: how do they feel trusted as professionals, do they trust educational policy and how do they create trusting relations at their schools. The aim of this paper is to reveal the dynamics of trust in transition from Soviet education towards the development of Lithuanian national education in 1988- 2012 affected by global neoliberal marketization and standardization.

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