Journal of Texas Women School Executives; Volume 7, Issue 1

Female Rural School Leaders’ Perceptions of Educational Leadership Preparation Practices Dr. Summer Pannell, Stephen F. Austin State University Dr. Juliann Sergi McBrayer, Georgia Southern University Dr. Kristen Dickens, Georgia Southern University Dr. Carrie Skelton, Marshall County School District Katherine Fallon, Georgia Southern University Abstract Phenomenological analysis was used to explore Mississippi rural female school leaders’ perceptions of effective school leadership preparation practices. Three overarching themes were found: learning by doing, purposeful pedagogy, and community-focused approach needed. The findings revealed that school leaders need increased experiential learning opportunities, increased practical assignments, and increased cultural awareness and diversity training in their preparation programs. Principal preparation programs should work with school districts to provide purposeful, collaborative, and sustainable professional learning to prepare competent school leaders. Further research includes recruiting more rural school principals to share their perceptions with principal preparation program providers in an effort to advance aspiring principal training. Implications for practice include equipping aspiring principals with the knowledge and skills to lead for equity to continue to have a pipeline of effective school leaders to serve in Mississippi’s traditionally underserved rural areas.

Keywords: rural school leadership, educational leadership preparation, school leadership, principal preparation, female leadership Researchers in the field of education have declared the quality of leadership provided by school and district leaders is highly dependent upon the quality of their leadership preparation experiences (Oliver et al., 2018; Pannell et al., 2015). Pannell and McBrayer (2020) contended that because of the school leader’s direct and indirect influence over every aspect of the schoolhouse, leaders can be the single most impactful factor in school success. Since their inception, educational leadership programs have been charged with preparing principals to effectively lead schools, and these programs need to continually assess and revise their curricular and pedagogical practices in an attempt to meet the demands of the shifting role and balancing both instructional leadership and managerial tasks (Jackson, 2021; McBrayer et. al, 2018). However, despite their efforts, a vast body of research spanning nearly two decades indicates that educational leadership preparation programs have failed to adequately change their practices to align with the modern principal role thus creating a “leadership gap” in the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required for effective school leadership (Pannell & McBrayer, 2020).

Similarly, Young et al. (2017) noted that program practices and support have not changed to adequately meet the mounting demands of principals although programs have developed a variety of assessment models to measure quality. Most current assessment models include some measure of knowledge, skill, and disposition attainments, attributes of vision, and outcome assessments of candidates as well as program sustainability, research-based content, curriculum coherence, project-based learning, authentic feedback, reflective practice, and supervised clinical practice (Knoeppel & Logan, 2011). Teachers are the number one factor impacting positive student 30 | J O U R N A L O F T E X A S S C H O O L W O M E N E X E C U T I V E S