Place-Serving Leaders: Insights from Rural Leaders in Australia and the United States

This volume brings together many diverse perspectives across Australia and the United States on what leadership and rurality mean when viewed together. We have coined the term ‘leading rurally’ to take an active and agentive stance to the notion of leadership in relation to what it might mean in, for and with rural contexts. This chapter serves to explore the notion of what leading rurally means with a particular focus on the notion of place-serving leadership. The chapter provides insights from across a range of rural authors who write against a backdrop of unprecedented climate change and, of course, a global pandemic that has heightened the intensity of the issues already faced by those leading in rural contexts. Four main aspects of leadership are explored–the notion of leading in the twenty-first century policy and politics, leading in rural schools and systems, leading with rural communities and cultures, and leading into and for rural futures. Across these diverse aspects, leadership for change and uncertainty emerge throughout.