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Topic

Investigation of Teacher Leadership in the Context of a Rural School District

Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies

Date & location

• Thursday, April 2, 2026

• 9:00 A.M.

• MacLaurin Building, room A341

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Catherine McGregor, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies,
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• Dr. Darlene Clover, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, UVic (Member)

• Dr. Denise Cloutier, Department of Geography, UVic (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Kirk Anderson, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Kimberly Speers, School of Public Administration, UVic

   

Abstract

The constructivist grounded theory, responding organically, conceptualizes how rural teacher leadership develops in a rural school district. Teacher leadership has emerged as a dynamic force in educational change, increasingly recognized for its potential to enhance school improvement, build professional capacity, and foster more responsive learning environments (Harris & Jones, 2019; Muijs & Harris, 2006; Nguyan et al., 2020; York-Barr and Duke, 2004). However, much of the literature on teacher leadership has been shaped by urban and suburban perspectives, often overlooking the distinct conditions found within rural educational contexts. This study builds on the work of Anderson (2008) and Cherkowski and Schnellert (2017), who identified rural spaces as promising environments for teacher leadership to thrive. The theory, responding organically, emerged from analysis of data gathered from open-ended interviews with 17 educators in a rural school district in British Columbia. Using constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2017) to guide the study design and data analysis, the findings highlight the responsive, creative, and student-centred nature of teacher leadership and addresses challenges associated with the role of rural teacher leader: isolation, community closeness, and resource scarcity, with leadership emerging as a creative, student-centred response to these challenges. The educator responses illuminate how teacher leadership is uniquely responsive, generative, and collaborative, and shaped profoundly by the rural context. The resulting theory extends understandings of teacher leadership in rural spaced by providing contextual details and descriptions of the dynamic rural environment, an explication of the processes utilized by rural teacher leadership and an illustration of the nature of this form of leadership.