This paper reports on an ongoing research study funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada that examines the role of school principals in rural, remote and northern schools in Canada. 

The objectives of this study include the following:

1. To describe the role of the school principal in Northern, rural, and remote school districts in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba by outlining: a) provincial and local frameworks within which the role is constituted; b) community contexts; (c) school contexts; d) working conditions, and; (e) individual effects (i.e. work-life balance).
2. To characterize the practices of school principals in rural, remote and Northern school contexts in terms of: a) the management and negotiation of multiple roles (often teaching as well as administrative roles); (b) the balancing of work and home life; (c) instructional leadership activity; and (d) principals' instructional responsibilities (Newton & Wallin, 2013).
3. To delineate implications of the above findings for leadership theory, practice and preparation.

The research on the contemporary principalship suggests that the role of the principal “has become more focused on the management of teaching and learning within the school, consistent with local school board and provincial policies and directions” (Alberta Education, 2009, p. 3). However, while principals are expected to focus on teaching and learning, they are also working in environments of increasing accountability and managerial imperatives due to the impacts of neoliberalism across the globe (Newton, Tunison & Viczko, 2010; Noonan & Renihan, 2006). The result is that principals are experiencing increasing (and often competing) demands related to workload intensification, and school systems are facing growing concerns with principal retention, stress and recruitment (Clarke, 2002; Clarke & Stevens, 2009; Clarke & Wildy, 2004; Collins, 2004; Dunning, 1993; Murdoch & Schiller, 2002).

This situation is exacerbated for those individuals who work as principals in rural, remote, and northern contexts.  In addition to having reduced administrative time for their administrative tasks, there often exists little in the way of administrative support or ancillary personnel to help teaching principals manage their day (Clarke, 2002; Ewington et al., 2008; Murdoch & Schiller, 2002). In addition, rural/Northern/remote principals face significant public expectations to contribute to community life (Wallin, 2001, 2005). In some cases, teaching principals face tensions between the need to be involved in matters of the school community while trying to maintain an appropriate professional distance with community members (Clarke, Stevens & Wildy, 2006). As a consequence, principals find themselves torn between the priorities and expectations of community members, and those of the district or province (Wallin, 2008).

In general, our orientation to this study is practice-based and founded on principles of pragmatist qualitative research. In particular, we frame this study as “practice research” (Goldkuhl, 2011) in which the operational practices are studied for the purpose of theorizing and for the purpose of contributing to local and generalized practices. Further, we conceptualize the phenomena of the principal in rural, remote, and northern contexts as comprised of practices centred on: (a) the management and negotiation of multiple roles; (b) the balancing of work and home life; (c) instructional leadership activity; and (d)  principals' instructional responsibilities (Newton & Wallin, 2013). 

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