Far from being the harmonious and homogenous communities of popular imagination, rural communities often are characterised by stark differences in class-situated values over education philosophy and financing. These differences can produce contentious political environments, vastly complexifying local decision-making, including school district policy-making, budgeting, and teacher contract negotiations. Through an exemplar case study, we examine one such conflict and how a hegemonic narrative was constructed by local actors to consolidate political power using crafted constructions of ‘other’ and competing narratives of community and community membership. This paper explores ‘insider–outsider’ identity constructions arising out of community–school conflict, and the ways in which rural teachers, working from the position of ‘outsider', navigated these constructions.

While the teacher shortage is a national crisis, the manifestations of the shortage are felt most acutely at the local district level. The diversity of these micro-contexts often leads to disparities in the ways local school systems are served by large-scale initiatives. District leaders provide an important lens for understanding the localized manifestation of teacher shortages. This research contributes to the existing macro-level literature on teacher shortages through investigation of the ways in which district leaders in West Virginia make sense of and respond to the teacher shortage. As part of a broader study, we share analyses of interviews with seven district leaders across five county school districts and highlight the ways in which leaders made sense of the phenomenon in paradoxical ways, both in terms of the most salient causes as well as the perceived locus of control in addressing the teacher shortage. Findings also highlight the way district leader sensemaking led to action, with responses differing based on relative affordances of metropolitan versus rural contexts. We conclude with implications for policy and research to further understand the local nature of teacher shortages and to address the problem, particularly in rural contexts underserved by current research and policy.

Purpose: Schools across the predominately rural state of West Virginia are experiencing widespread teacher shortages, though recruitment and retention difficulties are unevenly distributed across place. Using spatial in/justice as our framework, we explore how principals define place, how place influences principal perceptions of teacher recruitment and retention, and how principals respond to these staffing challenges given their leadership experiences, relationship to school community, and understandings of place affordances and disadvantages. Research Methods/Approach This research utilized interviews with eight principals across six school districts in West Virginia over a four-month time frame. We inductively coded interview transcripts in iterative cycles using our research framework as a guide for emic and etic codes. Findings: We find principals’ understanding of place influences on staffing to be specific to the unique attributes of each community and the placement of their leadership experiences – as community returners, seasoned though not originally from the community, and new-to-place. Their understandings of spatial in/justice as it relates to teacher staffing shape ideas of place affordances and disadvantages and recruitment and retention practices. These findings complexify the teacher staffing picture across geographically diverse rural places and the responses available to leaders given their leadership experience and relationship to place. Implications for Research and Practice The place-specific influences on teacher staffing problematize statewide policy mechanisms for ameliorating teacher shortages. The findings also suggest the need for further in-depth qualitative research within districts and across states, with an emphasis on racially diverse rural places.

Often considered harmonious places, rural communities are in reality spaces often fragmented along class lines, with political factions promoting competing values and interests regarding the purpose of schooling. Using an exemplar case, this study affords us a new interpretation of rural school-community relations in times of conflict. It illustrates the ways in which opposing groups consolidate political power around competing narratives of the rural community. The goal is the realization of a hegemonic narrative of community, in which one group is socially excluded and the other gains the political power necessary to influence school district decision-making.

The purpose of this ethnographic case study is to provide a rich picture of the ways in which the multidistrict superintendent (MDS) engages in contextually responsive and place-conscious leadership across multiple community school districts. Secondarily, the research explores the meaning ascribed to these leadership practices in the form of participant-generated metaphors. We find the MDS employs the metaphors of weatherman, cow herder, and river guide to explain practice as he negotiates tensions of place-consciousness with his goal of a common vision for the multidistrict union.

Hydraulic fracturing has altered the face of rural communities across the United States, creating new demands for educational leaders. This in-depth qualitative study explores how rural educational leaders in a heavily drilled community experience and respond to these challenges with a focus on increased local student transiency, homelessness, and the influx of newcomers, including English language learners. The research finds that leaders respond to transient outsider needs through a discourse of compliance and engage in contextually responsive, collaborative responses to meet the needs of community insiders. The authors find little evidence of critical place-conscious leadership in this rapidly changing social and economic context.