Profiles of Late Career Female Leadership in Australian Rural Schools

Rural schools in New South Wales, Australia, have been a focus of investigations by the University of New England's Bushtracks Research Collective since 2001. The research presented in this paper, centres on the roles that late-stage career female leaders have in rural schools. Specifically, interview questions probed four late career female teachers' personal and professional challenges and motivations to accept formal and informal leadership roles within rural teaching opportunities. All interview data were recorded, transcribed, manually coded for themes, and then analysed using the Leximancer text mining software. This research provides a rich context-oriented view of rural school leaders. The findings highlight the importance of cooperative personal styles and the kind of career advancement associated with both formal and informal leadership positions. Implications from these findings may usefully inform pre-service teacher education programs and postgraduate school leadership awards.