In a growing body of research about small schools two features are emerging. One is that small schools are generally undifferentiated, in theory and in policy documents, with the same expectations and accountabilities as larger schools but with fewer staff to carry out administrative and management tasks and where, in many settings school leaders, are also classroom teachers. The second feature is that the context that renders a school small has a range of implications for the personal and professional life of school leaders: small schools tend to be located in small rural or remote communities and some of these present challenging circumstances, frequently isolated from peer networks and professional support, and in some jurisdictions these school leaders are in their first appointment. For many school leaders, the culture of the community in which they take up their appointments present challenges: for example, the leader is highly visible; the community has expectations for the leader which may not be shared or valued by the leader; or the norms of the community are not understood by the leader. In this symposium we report findings from empirical research carried out by a total of seven researchers in the past two years in four countries: England, Poland, Ireland, and Australia.

The overarching research question driving the research in these settings is: What are the distinctive  challenges facing leaders of small schools in bringing about changes to school cultures to improve student learning achievements? The studies are situated in the interpretivist paradigm and they seek to understand the meaning that participants (school leaders) make of their world.  The theoretical framework underpinning each study various according to the researchers’ specific orientation, and includes the theory of collaborative advantage and the theoretical concept of social capital. In the contexts described in these papers, small school leaders usually teach, and are located in relatively small and isolated communities. However, a feature of this symposium is the contextual factors that shape the way ‘small’ is defined. The symposium focuses on the various ways school leaders are engaging with the culture of their schools and the challenges they face in doing so. In addition, the cross national nature of this symposium provides a forum for contrasting and comparing practice and policy and for highlighting the ways in which the larger national and institutional cultures impact on and support or constrain the work of leaders in small schools.