A team of US and Mexican researchers used focus groups to determine challenges faced by rural school directors who worked in isolated, poor communities. They had no preparation before becoming directors. Their stories express frustration with teachers who do not come to school on time and are not committed to education. Yet the directors throw themselves into their work and persist over the years. They ask for training in how to work with teachers, and they bring qualities of idealism and persistence to their work. The profiles of the directors suggest a changing dynamic on Hofstede's (2001) cultural dimensions