Chapter 7: The Importance Of Nimble Leadership in Rural School Settings

In the contemporary educational environment, policymakers, scholars, and educational leaders are focused on improving student outcomes with particular emphasis on student learning. Efforts to lead reform within rural settings have focused on sources of inequality, efforts to increase student choice, placing emphasis on accountability, and unifying academic standards in recent years (Barrett et al., 2015). With an array of foci for reform, a mixed literature base, and ample acknowledgement of the challenges educational leaders in rural settings face, it is unsurprising that rural school reform lacks a clear best practice. In this chapter, we will survey the literature that outlines relevant challenges that rural leadership faces in leading school reform and change as well as present evidence-based recommendations for leading those changes. Finally, we will share the Nimble Leadership framework for rural leaders to harness as they navigate the myriad challenges of rural school reform. Practical experiences will be shared to underscore real-world application of what it means to be a nimble leader engaged in leading change in schools and reflections will be considered for why nimble leadership matters in rural schools.