Leading the small rural school in Iceland and Australia

• Published in: Educational Management Administration & Leadership
• Main Authors: Wildy, Helen, Siguräardóttir, Sigríäur Margrét, Faulkner, Robert
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2014
• Subjects: Strategy and Management; Education; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1741143213513188; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143213513188; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1741143213513188

This study builds on a set of Australian case studies exploring the impact of Place on the work of principals and of the importance of Place in the preparation and development of principals. The project compares the ways that principals in Iceland and Australia build leadership capacity in small rural schools. Leaders of small schools in both settings face challenges because of their remoteness, such as lack of access to professional learning opportunities, professional isolation and teaching roles in addition to leadership and administrative responsibilities. Qualitative data from interviews and observations were used to construct narrative accounts of salient aspects of the principal’s work. It was evident that these schools were good schools, hardly noticed and rarely visited by their respective educational authority personnel. Their principals accommodate the changes they face, accepting the conditions they find. These schools are characterised by a culture of acceptance, where expectations for performance and behaviour are known and shared and not questioned. But is this enough? Could they be great schools or even simply better schools? In what ways? At what cost? How might these schools become great schools if principals were to develop a culture of inquiry?