Articles

Transparency, Trust, and Teacher Quality: Rethinking Educational Management Through a Governance Lens

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Teacher quality in contemporary education systems is often addressed through technical reforms emphasizing standards, performance measurement, and administrative accountability. However, such approaches tend to overlook the governance conditions under which professional quality is formed and sustained. This article rethinks educational management through a governance lens by examining the interrelationship between transparency, institutional trust, and teacher quality. Drawing on a critical review of literature in educational governance, organizational trust, and professional management, the study argues that the relationship between transparency and teacher quality is not direct but mediated by institutional trust. Transparency that is perceived as fair, consistent, and substantively accountable contributes to the formation of trust, enabling teachers to interpret policies as supportive of professionalism rather than as instruments of control. In trust-based governance environments, teacher quality emerges not merely as individual competence, but as a systemic capacity encompassing professional autonomy, reflective practice, contextual adaptability, and sustained commitment. Conceptually, this article contributes an integrated governance framework that positions transparency, trust, and teacher quality as mutually reinforcing dimensions of educational management. The analysis further highlights the potential role of digital governance innovations, including blockchain-based financial transparency, as institutional enablers strengthen accountability while fostering trust. By emphasizing the balance between accountability and trust, the article offers a governance-oriented perspective for developing more legitimate, sustainable, and systemically grounded strategies to enhance teacher quality.

Digital Era Tax Compliance: A Systematic Review Integrating Behavioral, Technological, and Institutional Perspectives

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Digital tax compliance has become central to public finance as governments increasingly adopt digital technologies to modernize tax administration and governance. This study systematically reviews research on digital tax compliance published between 2021 and 2025, with a focus on the intersection of behavioral, technological, and institutional factors. Employing the PRISMA 2020 protocol and the TCCM framework, 143 Scopus-indexed articles were screened, resulting in 38 studies selected for in-depth analysis. The findings indicate that digitalization is fundamentally transforming tax compliance by shifting from deterrence-based enforcement models to trust-based, voluntary compliance, supported by behavioral insights, technological advancements, and institutional legitimacy. The review identifies three primary thematic clusters: behavioral factors (tax morale, trust, fairness), technological factors (digital platforms, artificial intelligence, blockchain), and institutional factors (governance quality, transparency, tax literacy). The synthesis highlights digitalization’s contribution to enhancing efficiency and reshaping taxpayer behavior by improving legitimacy and motivation. However, the existing research remains fragmented and lacks comprehensive frameworks, with a predominant focus on emerging economies and limited longitudinal or mixed-method studies. This review contributes to the field by conceptualizing digital tax compliance as a behavioral, technological, and institutional nexus, and by positioning digital governance as a catalyst for voluntary compliance. The study provides policy recommendations for developing inclusive, trust-based digital tax systems and outlines a research agenda for the evolving digital tax landscape.

Digital Integration and Institutional Trust: The Mediating Role of E-Government Transparency in Enhancing Citizen Satisfaction

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: Digital transformation in local governance has increasingly been positioned as a catalyst for building public trust and enhancing citizen satisfaction. However, empirical evidence on how digital integration translates into trust-based outcomes through transparency mechanisms remains underexplored, particularly in developing-country contexts. This study examines the mediating roles of e-government transparency and institutional trust in linking digital integration to citizen satisfaction within decentralized governance structures.

Using data from 280 active users of integrated digital services in Malang City, Indonesia, collected between August and September 2025, this research employs Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test a sequential mediation model. Findings reveal that digital integration significantly enhances e-government transparency (β = 0.51, p < 0.001), which in turn fosters institutional trust (β = 0.48, p < 0.001). Institutional trust emerges as the strongest predictor of citizen satisfaction (β = 0.62, p < 0.001), with full mediation confirmed via bootstrapping.

The study contributes to digital government literature by demonstrating that technology-enabled transparency functions as a trust-building mechanism rather than merely an information disclosure tool. Theoretically, the research extends trust-based governance frameworks by positioning e-government transparency as an interactive accountability interface that bridges technological capability and citizen confidence. Practically, the findings suggest that local governments should prioritize digital platforms that enable real-time monitoring, two-way communication, and responsive feedback systems to cultivate sustained institutional trust.