Abstract
The purpose of this article is to explore both the challenges and skills needed to effectively assume a leadership position and thus to create an entry plan or ‘toolkit’ for a new rural school leader. The entry plan acts as a guide beginning principals may use to navigate the unavoidable confusion that comes with leadership. It also assists aspiring new leaders to think through, and vicariously experience, the challenges they may face in a leadership role. If focuses on three specific areas most relevant to rural principals: Dealing with professional isolation and loneliness, getting to know and thriving in a rural community, and basic management skills for the lone administrator. It provides a series of tools that beginning principals may find useful as they embark on a leadership journey in a rural setting and also identifies the specific skills various stakeholder groups perceive as most important for rural school leaders.
Highlights
The purpose of this article is to explore both the challenges and skills needed to effectively assume a leadership position and to create an entry plan or ‘toolkit’ for a new rural school leader
While much less dramatic in nature, the journey from educator to educational leader requires the same understanding of the potential challenges as well as the skills needed to progress through the journey
Much research has focused on entry plans for beginning principals, and a lesser amount on rural education, but there is a dearth of literature around the intersection of these two domains, that is, the specific needs of beginning principals in rural areas of the US
Summary
The purpose of this article is to explore both the challenges and skills needed to effectively assume a leadership position and to create an entry plan or ‘toolkit’ for a new rural school leader. In an effort to ease the transition, this entry level plan focuses on providing tool s to ease three challenges faced by new school leaders that have the potential to be intensified in a rural school These are: Dealing with professional isolation and loneliness Getting to know and thriving in a rural community Basic management skills for the lone administrator. It is vitally important that the principal leads the professional growth of the entire organization, so that individual teachers are better able to meet the students’ needs This challenge is compounded in rural settings where parents have little choice who their child is assigned to because there are few options. The Top Leadership Behaviors Required for Leadership Success – Different Stakeholder Perspectives (Canales, Tejeda-Deigado, & Slate, 2008)
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