Context and Decision Making: An Exploratory, Mixed Methods Study Examining the Mental Models of Rural and Urban Principals.

This sequential, exploratory mixed methods study examined how rural and urban school contexts affect school principals’ decision-making process by influencing school principals’ mental models. This study examined how the mental models of rural and urban principals’ influenced decision making in their particular school context, what characteristics in rural and urban settings most influences the way school principals address challenges or issues in their school, and how the mental models of rural and urban principals compared in their decision making. This investigation followed a sequential, exploratory mixed methods design (QUAL+quan). The scenario survey used in the secondary quantitative phase was developed by the researcher based on data collected during the initial qualitative phase. At the conclusion of data analysis, findings were integrated to answer the research questions. Qualitative results indicated that rural principals’ decision making practices were influenced by the socio-economic condition of their community, parental education values, and making connections with community social groups as a means of supporting their school. Qualitative results also indicated that urban principals’ decision making practices were influenced by the multicultural traits of their community, stakeholder communication, and business partnerships to obtain and develop resources. Quantitative results indicated that a majority of rural and urban principals focused on communicating with their respective stakeholders when engaging in decision making. Finally, integrated results indicated that when viewed holistically, rural and urban principals tend to think about traits associated with their respective contexts as identified during the qualitative phase of this study when making decisions. The study concludes with a model to describe principal decision making in rural and urban contexts and provides implications for its use along with recommendations for future research. Results from this study highlight suggestions that future research should focus on principal decision making in suburban contexts, principal decision making within each context, and supporting principals in context specific decision making practices.