Reasons and motivations of school leaders who apply for rural, regional and remote locations in Australia.
Halsey, R. John ; Drummond, Aaron
INTRODUCTION
Educational leadership is complex, contested and frequently a
catalyst for extensive theoretical and pragmatic debate and discussion
about what blend of leadership skills, knowledge and understandings are
required to optimise student learning, and 'deliver on'
societal wide expectations of schooling like internationally competitive
literacy and numeracy scores (Anderson et al., 2010; Browne-Ferrigno
& Allen, 2006; MacGilchrist, Myers &Reed, 2004; Robinson, 2007).
Leithwood, Louis, Anderson and Wahlstrom, (2004, p.1) have concluded
from their extensive work that "[school] leadership not only
matters: it is second only to teaching among school-related factors in
its impact on student learning". In rural, regional and remote (R3)
contexts, educational leaders are also a rich source of intellectual
capital and therefore are uniquely placed to contribute towards other
priorities like capacity building and sustainability (Anderson, Davis,
Douglas, Lloyd, Niven, & Thiele, 2010; Cocklin & Dibden, 2005;
Masumoto & Brown-Welty, 2009; Mulford, 2003).
Starr and White (2008) in their rural schools research found
understanding context is crucial to appreciating the complexities and
challenges of rural principalship. Their research also foregrounded that
constantly changing systems policies and priorities impact on how rural
principals come to understand and then enact their leadership role.
Blackmore (2004) has argued similarly and has also underscored how
leadership effectiveness is sensitive to contextual diversity:
Individuals who exercise leadership in one context may not do so
readily in another, and particular contexts produce dominant images
and constructs of what constitutes good leadership (p.268).
Given the importance of school leadership, one concern for
Australian R3 schools is the smaller pool of applicants for school
leadership positions (Barty, Thomson, Blackmore & Sachs, 2005). Of
further concern is that principals are often under prepared for these
leadership positions, which are highly demanding roles (Clarke, &
Wildy, 2004 & 2010; Drummond & Halsey, 2013).
Perhaps for the aforementioned reason, principals in country areas
are more likely to leave the school system than their counterparts in
capital cities (Gates, Ringel, Santibanez, Guarino, Ghosh-Dastidar &
Brown, 2006). This illustrates a further problem with R3 school
principals--their retention by schools. Together, the lower attraction
and retention rates of school leaders in rural, regional and remote
areas pose a challenge for the sustainability of these areas.
As Ban, Drahnak-Faller and Towers (2003) found from their research
on recruitment and retention for human service and community development
organisations (such as education), motivation is a critical aspect of
recruitment and "the central debate is over the relative importance
of intrinsic motivators (mission of the organisation and nature of the
work, chance for growth and self-development) and extrinsic motivators
(primarily pay and benefits)" (p.144). Despite this, little is
presently known about why school educators decide to accept a R3
position, and what kinds of motivations drive their choice to work as a
leader in a rural school. By understanding the reasons and motivations
for accepting R3 leadership positions, we may add to our knowledge of
what attracts and retains educators in these roles.
Before proceeding further, a few comments on rural, regional and
remote locations are required. In Australia, locational determinations
for schooling provision are essentially based upon a blend of size of
population centre and distance from either the capital city or a major
regional centre (Jones, 2000, pp.12-17). However, there is often
variation between and within jurisdictions. For example, in South
Australia, a rurality allowance for government schools commences for
schools located 80kms or more from the General Post Office; for
non-government schools, the distance is 50kms. In contrast to
quantitative metrics, qualitative/descriptive definitions of rural,
regional and remote locations focus on the essences of places and
spaces. Put another way: "The notions of movement, flow from place
to place, the ways in which places are connected by histories rather
than geographies, and the idea put forward by Deleuze that place is an
issue of becoming and identification, all constitute interesting
problematics for [an] analysis [and understanding] of rural ..."
(McConaghy, 2002, p.14).
Numeric definitions of rural, regional and remote locations, while
they may convey a sense of precision, do not capture the immeasurable
dimensions of contexts, the lived, the felt, the relational and more.
Consequently for the research reported in this article, respondents were
invited to define their location according to the definition of their
employer.
The present study sought to examine the reasons and motivation for
applying to work as an educational leader in a rural, regional or remote
location. Further, the research examined the common themes among the
reasons and motivations of school leaders in these locations.
METHOD
Participants
Participants were 426 R3 school principals. These were a subset of
a larger sample of 683 participants who responded to a national
leadership questionnaire, who had served as educational leaders in a
non-urban location for an average of 10.6 years (SD = 7.3 years).
Inclusion in the present study was predicated on participants providing
a qualitative response to the question: briefly describe why you applied
for a rural/regional/remote leadership position?
Responses
Survey participants provided responses which ranged from a single
word (e.g., 'promotion', 'lifestyle') to a large
amount of descriptive information--for example:
'I have a passion and commitment to rural education and I too
often see rural schools without sustained contributions from leaders.
They are a whistle stop for ambitious people who often practice seagull
leadership. Fly in, squawk a lot, put crap about and fly away quickly. I
was sick of being in schools as a teacher where this sort of thing
seemed to be the norm. Leadership of country schools should be about the
needs of the community and their young people and not the needs of the
upwardly mobile professional.'
RESULTS
The first author read and considered the 426 items of data from
respondents guided by a blended phenomenological and grounded approach
to text analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; 1994). Both approaches are
of the qualitative research tradition but there are important, yet
complementary, differences- hence the decision to use a blend of each.
As Starks and Trinidad (2007) state, "the goal of phenomenology is
to study how people make meaning of their lived experience ... and
grounded theory develops explanatory theories of basic social processes
studied in context" (p.1373).
An analysis of all the comments about what leaders view positively
about the characteristics and opportunities of R3 contexts generated 19
categories of comments. The categories emerged over the duration of
reading and working to identify the reason or reasons for applying for a
R3 leadership position. The categories were not predetermined.
Statements from respondents were not forced to fit into them. In some
cases, a comment comprised more than one reason such as "promotion
and lifestyle for myself and young family" and "interest in
Indigenous education and teaching in remote schools", and was
therefore allocated to more than one category as appropriate. In other
instances, the context which 'wrapped' a response gave voice
to the reason-"[the] situation allows a leader to use more
initiative and independence in order to respond to and make changes to
improve student learning and school culture". Put another way, the
responses of the participants were read and reread to distil the
essential messages (Bernstein, 1971) being conveyed and portrayed by
them.
Table 1 shows the categories, the comment tally for each and 2 or 3
examples to illustrate what respondents wrote which led to the category
descriptor.
CLUSTERING OF REASONS: PROFESSIONAL, PERSONAL AND PLACE
Following the initial categorisation of responses, the first author
then condensed these categories into three domains: personal,
professional and place. As for the first process of considering inputs
from respondents, the 3 domains arose from numerous rounds of thinking
about each reason and what seemed to be the primary or fundamental
underpinning of it. The domains are shown in table 2. Professional
reasons for applying for a country school include promotion, income,
school size and school type. Personal reasons include making a fresh
start after, for example, a marriage or relationship break up, to
enhance family relations and improve lifestyle opportunities and for
some, a country position was returning home, either to their place of
origin or one similar. Place preferences include lifestyle and
opportunities to make a contribution to a community and more widely. As
stated above, reasons for applying for a R3 leadership position at times
were composite in nature and this is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1.
The detailed tracking of the 426 respondent comments to produce
frequency data for each category of reasons and intersections of them,
significantly helps to 'fill out the picture' about why
leaders apply for R3 positions, was undertaken by the second author.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
NATURE OF REASONS: PRAGMATISM, OPPORTUNISM AND IDEALISM
In addition to identifying and then categorising the reasons school
leaders chose to apply for their position, the first author also
attempted to identify the motivation for the application in those
instances where enough detail was available to do so, and within the
limitation of the data type. An analysis of the comments within each of
the groups shows there appear to be at least three variations in
motivational framing that respondents held in relation to why they
applied for a R3 leadership position. The remainder did not have enough
detail to be coded into motivational categories.
The first motivational theme to emerge was pragmatism, akin to
'the thing to do at this stage of my career and life; the thing to
try and capitalise on at this time'. Comments such as "faced
displacement if I did not win the leadership position",
"decided to apply for it because there was less travelling",
"lived in the region", "limited positions available in
city schools" and, "availability of position" are
illustrative of pragmatism as used here. At least 188 responses
displayed some level of pragmatism.
The second motivational framing in relation to applying for a R3
leadership position was opportunism - here used in terms of 'taking
action may well open up options that would otherwise remain closed or
that suit my circumstances'. Respondents' comments of this
kind include "great opportunity to become a leader",
"opportunities exist that don't occur in metropolitan
settings", "to access a promotional position",
"better lifestyle for self and family", "an opportunity
to get back into the workforce after motherhood", and "prefer
rural but also position became available in location that matched
husband's work area". Seventy six responses displayed
opportunism.
The third motivation that came through in the comments was
idealism, in essence comments which reflect challenge and a desire, an
aspiration to help improve the lot of rural students and communities.
Comments such as "I have a passion for trying to ensure that
students in remote places gain the best possible education",
"wanted to be part of the solution not the problem", "to
make a difference to student outcomes", and "I wanted to use
my experience to help young teachers" are examples of idealism. As
for the reasons people apply for country appointments, in some instances
there appears to be a blending of motivations, as illustrated in "I
am from a rural area, and felt that I could make a difference",
"promotion and desire for challenge" and "Department of
Education restructuring and deep commitment to students with
disabilities". Eighty responses were coded as idealistic.
Table 3 shows the reasons and motivations underlying the
application of educational leaders to country positions arranged as a
matrix for those respondents for whom both a reason and a motivation
could be discerned from their answer. As can be seen from the table
there are high levels of pragmatic responses in every category; however,
a high number of idealistic professional responses were also observed.
DISCUSSION
The present study investigated the self-reported reasons and
motivations for rural, regional and remote educational leaders to have
applied for their position. Substantive and aspiring educational leaders
appear to apply for R3 positions for professional reasons, personal
reasons, place preferencing reasons, or a blend there-of. Furthermore,
their reasons appear to be largely pragmatic, opportunistic or
idealistic in nature. Most commonly, respondents reported pragmatic or
idealistic professional reasons for pursuing leadership positions in
country areas, followed by pragmatic personal reasons and pragmatic
place reasons.
Importantly, the cohort that participated in the study were
predominantly long-standing principals in country areas, providing
insight into why those principals who stay in these areas first were
attracted to country school leadership. By understanding that many
educational leaders in country areas who choose to remain report the
aforementioned three reasons and three underlying motivations,
educational policy makers and administrators may gain important insights
into the kinds of reasons and motivations that may support school
leaders in R3 contexts.
A valuable outcome from the present study is the possibility that
the three reason domains and the three underlying motivations comprising
the Reasons and Motivations Matrix (RaMM) may be used by marketers and
employing school authorities in an attempt to attract successful
applicants who are likely to pursue lengthy tenures in country
educational leadership positions, which are traditionally difficult to
fill and retain staff in (Barty, Thomson, Blackmore & Sachs, 2005;
Gates, Ringel, Santibanez, Guarino, Ghosh-Dastidar & Brown, 2006).
Appealing to the reasons and motivations that successful R3 school
leaders report as being responsible for their initial applications may
help to ensure similar qualities amongst future applicants. The RaMM may
also be used by those considering applying for R3 school leadership
positions to reflect on their reasons for applying (or not) in deep,
disaggregated as well as aggregated ways.
The present study joins a large and growing body of literature
aimed at illuminating and remedying issues of inequity in rural
education (Curtis, 2011; Drummond, 2013; Drummond & Halsey, 2013;
Drummond, Halsey & van Breda, 2011; Drummond, Halsey & van Breda
2012a; 2012b; Halsey, 2011; Lock, Reid & White, 2011). As rural
areas are critical for food security and other 'basics for
life' (Homer- Dixon, 2006; Diamond, 2005; Pretty, 2002: Ehrlich,
Ehrlich & Daily, 1993), the importance for rural areas in national
and global issues in the 21st century cannot be overestimated. In order
for country areas to flourish however, it is a necessary for them to
have essential human services, such as schools, and leaders are integral
to the quality of education available to students and communities more
broadly.
The data presented and analysed in this paper shows that attracting
and retaining leaders for R3 schools is multi-dimensional in terms of
reasons and motivations and in essence, pushes back against the tendency
to rely on a suite of incentives, usually expressed as a quantum of
dollars. The reasons and motivations of the informants for the research
reveal a more nuanced mix of factors 'than just money' which
in turn enriches the possibilities available to those ultimately
responsible for ensuring that educational leaders are appointed to R3
schools.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was funded by the Myer Foundation and the Sidney Myer
Fund.
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of Marja van Breda,
Research and Administration Assistant, Sidney Myer Chair of Rural
Education and Communities.
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R. John Halsey
School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
Sidney Myer Chair of Rural Education and Communities.
Aaron Drummond
School of Education, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
(1.) In this article, rural, regional and remote are denoted by R3.
Table 1: Comment categories, total number of
responses in the category (Tally) and Selected
comments.
Why? Tally Selected Comments
Career 31 I have always wanted to be a principal;
career progression; to step up to
another position to make the most of
my education and improve the financial
circumstances of my family
Promotion 45 Promotion; increased promotional
opportunity; wanted my own substantive
principalship-would have gone
anywhere to achieve this
Lifestyle 36 Love the country-the people the
landscape the lifestyle; preferred it.
as personal/professional lifestyle
and location; the people attracted me
to the country lifestyle
Family 39 Family life; moved to regional area for
personal/family reasons; an
opportunity to have a family life
better than that in the city
Rural/country 64 Like being in the country; I prefer to
preference live in rural areas; prefer rural but
also position became available in
location that matched husband's work
Fresh start 10 Nobody knew me in the country; marriage
break up, needed to move
Indigenous 7 Interest in Indigenous education and
education experience teaching in remote
schools; seeking broader experience
as educator in an Aboriginal community
Childhood/family 9 I spent a lot of time in the country as
background a kid-Dad was a principal; grew up
in isolated area, felt drawn back to
profession in these areas
Escape 3 Hated the idea of living in the city;
congestion and inequality in the
urban areas; I wanted to move
away from Sydney
Money 7 Promotion-financial consideration; to
step up to another position to make
the most of my education and improve
the financial circumstances of
my family
School size/type 19 Size of the school was the greatest
factor, as I wanted to work in a small
school; I knew and liked the
particular school I applied for; I
was working in Sydney and the
opportunity came up to lead a
central(k-12) school-I had a young
family it seemed perfect; leadership
opportunity coupled with
classroom teaching
Make a difference 32 Wanted to be part of the solution not
the problem; I believed I had
something to offer public education;
I believed I could make a more
significant contribution across a
school rather than a classroom
Opportunity 38 Opportunity to develop new skills; an
opportunity to work in a completely
different area ie lifestyle community;
it was a dream to be a teaching
principal as I grew up in a small
community
People and 23 Community values; my community; thought
community I would like working in a small
community; quality of life and being
part of a small community
Challenge 25 New challenge I felt I was better
suited to admin than teaching; I
enjoyed the challenge and the
opportunity of working closely with
the community; challenge of new
learning, community partnerships
Invitation/ 15 I was asked by the principal to apply;
encouraged upon encouragement by line manager;
it was suggested that I do so-I then
considered that I could make a
difference in my site if I took
a leadership role
Leadership 27 Deeper leadership opportunity; great
opportunity to become a leader;
wanted the challenge of leadership
in a small community
It's home/I 30 I live here; was currently living in a
live here regional centre; near the location of
my choice for residence; home area
and just happened
Employment 14 Already a coordinator at the site-faced
displacement if I did not win the
leadership position; an opportunity
to get back into the workforce after
motherhood; permanency
Table 2: Categories as represented by
professional, personal and place domains.
Professional Reasons Personal Reasons Place Reasons
Career Family Lifestyle
Promotion Fresh start Country preference
Indigenous education Escape People and community
School size and type Invited/ Encouraged Opportunity
Make a difference It's home Childhood experiences
Challenge Money
Leadership
Employment
Table 3: Reasons and Motivations Matrix (RaMM)
Reason/Motivation Professional Personal Place Blend
Pragmatism 59 34 26 25
Opportunism 19 10 12 14
Idealism 33 1 14 11
Blend 13 2 3 6
