Leadership practices of rural school principals who desire learning in an online professional learning community

The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the leadership practices and behaviors of school principals who desired to participate in an online professional learning community within a rural school system in western Canada. Twenty-six rural school principals from K-12 schools in one school system were interviewed. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed typologically and interpretively using the framework of leadership practices and behaviors identified by Kouzes and Posner (2002). The leadership practice most forecast was challenging the process (62.5%) and the least forecast was encouraging others (47.3%). The highest-ranking behavior was setting an example (79%) and the lowest ranking behavior was praising others for a job well done (32%)