Towards a Framework of Diffusing Education Innovations at Different Levels of the System

Abstract

This chapter delves into crafting a classification framework of different types of education innovations for diffusion at various levels of the system. Education innovations are complex, and their diffusion efforts are contingent on multiple dimensions that include teachers’ capacity, students’ abilities, schools’ supports, expert knowledge, and the enabling system infrastructures. Existing classifications of innovations can inform the diffusion efforts, but we posit these to be insufficient in capturing the nuances of challenges in operationalising innovations in the local context. Adapting grounded approaches, this study collected qualitative data that included interviews, focus meetings, and observations, to analyse and subsequently develop a classification framework of innovation types that accounts for teachers’ concerns, the learning communities’ perspectives, and the enabling leverages. The classification system calls for focused roles that can be performed by the respective learning communities to diffuse the innovations at that particular level of the system which best suits the innovation.