Leading in rural and remote Australia and Sweden: An analysis of the education complex in rural and remote early childhood education across countries

Early childhood education (ECE) can influence children’s outcomes and developmental trajectories. Leadership within settings significantly enhances the quality of ECE and, therefore, outcomes for children and families. However, access to early childhood education in rural and remote areas worldwide is limited, thus perpetuating inequality and limiting children’s right to ECE. Furthermore, leadership practice within these settings is also constrained by the prevailing policy and funding settings.

This paper presents a comparative study exploring and analysing the context and complexity for leading early childhood education in rural and remote areas of Australia and Sweden. Such a study is helpful in identifying patterns, anomalies and outliers concerning workforce sustainability, availability of resourcing and policy contexts for rural and remote regions. Opportunities for change and transformation are thus revealed.

To reveal these opportunities, we have chosen to examine the jurisdictional conditions for rural and remote ECE leadership development through the theoretical lens of the theory of practice architectures and the education complex (Kemmis et al., 2014). The education complex refers to five educational practices that have arisen in response to mass schooling. Similarly, the five interrelated core practices and arrangements emerge in response to the rise of early childhood education and the context within which education occurs. The five core practices are children’s learning and practice, pedagogy, professional learning, education policy and administration, leadership and research and quality assessment. Through this examination, we identify opportunities for transformation that potentially enhance leadership emergence and practice and children’s access to high-quality education in rural and remote regions in Australia and Sweden.

This paper also provides a context for a future study of leadership development in early childhood education within rural and remote regions. The study investigates the conditions and arrangements for leadership development in rural and remote Australia and Sweden.