This paper explores the value of using a practice lens to explore how leadership happens in a rural school. I contend that examining leadership-as-practice provides an alternate means of understanding the phenomenon of rural school leadership, which transitions the focus of study away from the traits and behaviors of individual school leaders, by providing insight into how leadership unfolds, as school actors work together. To advance this argument, I provide an overview of traditional approaches to studying leadership, and identify some of the drawbacks of these approaches. Drawing on the turn to practice in social theory as a reference point, I then draw attention to the study of leadership as a socially constructed phenomenon and use an illustrative case to demonstrate the value of a leadership-as practice lens. An overview of the methodological implications of studying leadership-as-practice is provided, with attention being paid to its potential to expand the focus of rural school leadership studies.