School leader coaching: building principal capacity in small, rural districts

Purpose Leadership coaching can help build the capacity of school leaders and support school improvement efforts. The purpose of this research is to describe how leadership coaching methodologies, grounded in traditional community building practices, change based on context and location. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual autoethnographic approach reflects on and explores how Community Learning Exchange (CLE) axioms were used as a framework to coach school principals in small, rural districts. The CLE framework shaped the interpretation of this experience by emphasizing the social, dynamic, and asset-based nature of learning and leadership. Findings Coaching school leaders in small, rural districts required an approach that incorporated building relational trust, collaborative problem-solving, contextualized coaching, embedding self in the community, and the identification of school and community assets. Originality/value Community Learning Exchange axioms have traditionally been used in settings to bring together communities and in classrooms to establish community among students. These same principles were reimagined and utilized successfully in two small, rural districts to build a foundation for improving schools.