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Rural school principals in Tennessee face serious challenges in leading their schools, including isolation, high turnover, and a lack of instructional leadership skills. Facilitated by a state university, the Tennessee Rural Principals Network (TRPN) was developed to provide professional learning opportunities for rural school principals. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of principals in rural schools who participated in the TRPN during the years 2019–2021 (n = 133). The study used a basic qualitative research design with semi structured interviews of 12 participants. Through our data analysis, key learning strengths and challenges were identified and organized under the codes of learning needs, coaching, mentoring, and networking. From these categories, we developed three themes: (a) sharing and collaborating through networks; (b) building capacity through mentoring and coaching; and (c) addressing the learning needs of principals in a rural context. Findings revealed that principals were pleased with the network and felt it helped them better navigate their roles as rural principals by providing the tools to develop best practices and a network to share ideas and resources.
A campus principal is an important influence in improving student achievement (Branch et al., 2013; Grissom et al., 2021). Branch et al. (2013) asserted, "highly effective principals raise the achievement of a typical student in their schools by between two and seven months of learning in a single year; ineffective principals lower achievement by the same amount" (p. 63). Grissom et al. (2021) found that principals play a critical role in improving student achievement and asserted that school districts should invest in improving the performance of the school principal as "the most efficient way to affect student achievement" (p. 40). Moreover, the principal is a critical factor in supporting and developing teachers (Burkhauser, 2017), hiring and retaining quality teachers (Grissom & Bartanen, 2019), and establishing a positive and inclusive learning environment for students (Faas et al., 2018).
Although the mportance of a school principal is well established in research, scholarship centering on effective school leadership is often unrelated to situational realities and geography (Clarke & Stevens, 2009; Starr & White, 2008), and little is known about the conditions in which rural principals do their work and successfully lead their schools (Preston & Barnes, 2017). The...