Background: This presentation shares the findings of 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 helps identify patterns, anomalies and outliers concerning workforce sustainability, availability of resourcing and policy contexts for rural and remote regions that enable and constrain the cultivation and development of leadership.

Aims: The study investigates the conditions and arrangements for leadership development in rural and remote Australia and Sweden.

Method: To reveal these arrangements, jurisdictional conditions for rural and remote ECE leadership development were analysed in a case study re-analysis methodology through the theoretical lens of the theory of practice architectures and the education complex. 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.

Results: This examination reveals opportunities for transformation that enhance leadership emergence and practice and children’s access to high-quality education in rural and remote regions in Australia and Sweden. The findings also provide a context for a future study of leadership development in early childhood education within rural and remote regions.

Conclusions: This study illuminates the policy context and practice complexity for leading ECEC in rural and remote areas of Australia and Sweden for delivering high-quality settings for children. New insights are revealed regarding conditions and arrangements for the cultivation and development of leadership through the theoretical analysis of the education complex within the theory of practice architectures and demonstrates the possibilities for interventions and transformations. Additionally, the findings of the comparative study now provide a contextual foundation for a qualitative study of enabling and constraining arrangements for ECEC leadership in rural and remote contexts.

Implications for children and families: Favourable conditions for leadership development and therefore high-quality early childhood education and care in Australia and Sweden.

Implications for practitioners: Improved understanding of the policy and practice context for the development of leadership in rural and remote early childhood education and care settings.

Key words: professionals’ voices, qualitative methods, regional/rural communities, theory, workforce issues

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities