This paper gives insight into teacher’s place based role in rural areas in Norway, Poland and Lithuania. It presents teacher’s description of their identity and their acceptance in a rural area. The paper describes the teacher’s role in the community. The qualitative data comprises 29 semi-structured interviews. They were conducted between December 2014 and April 2015 among teachers and kindergarten teachers working in rural schools and kindergartens (in countries mentioned above). This paper analyzes one of the categories that covers our research question and refers to teacher’s place based role. In order to get a deeper insight in meanings of this category qualitative content analysis procedure – following Mayring (2000) was applied. On the basis of the empirical research, it can be concluded that findings reveal unique demands that are encountered by teachers work in different rural areas in different countries. The research discloses slightly nationally/ culturally caused difference. Lithuanian teachers often perceive themselves as social and cultural missionaries, while Norwegian teachers have a professional mind-set of being a teacher in the rural area. The same is true for polish teachers. The findings contribute to the better understanding of teacher’s place based role and their contribution to community well-being. In order to improve the quality of teaching in rural areas and better understanding of teacher’s place-base role, it might be meaningful to implement some changes in education in rural areas as well as in teachers’ education.

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