Innovation, Quality, and the School Ecosystem

Innovation,
Quality and the
School Ecosystem:
Challenges to the
Inspectorate
September 13-14, 2012 / Porto, Portugal
SICI WORKSHOP – Innovating Inspections
to Value Innovative Schools
The Standing International Conferences of Inspectorates (SICI)

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY
3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM
4. THE INSPECTORATE
5. CONCLUSIONS


Two radically different
types of innovation:

incremental innovation
disruptive innovation

If we mix them up,
innovation rarely happens


INCREMENTAL INNOVATION

Incremental innovations build on
existing thinking, products, processes,
organizations, or social systems
They can be routine improvements
or they can be dramatic breakthroughs
but
they apply to what already exists


INCREMENTAL INNOVATION
Examples of incremental innovations:
•  Airplanes that fly farther
•  Batteries that last longer
•  Televisions with better images
•  Computers that process faster
•  Schools where students learn
better by regularly using the Net


DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

Disruptive innovations are addressed to
people who do not have any solutions
They take root in simple, undemanding,
applications that are not breakthrough
People are happy to use them, in spite of their
limitations, because no other solutions exist
They do not compete with anything



But as they gain strength
in the realm of non-competition

they evolve very fast

and end up replacing
the traditional solutions



Example of a disruptive innovation: the personal computer

In the 1970s the professional computer market was occupied
by 100,000 € minicomputers produced by Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC), Data General, and HP.

The first personal computers (like the Spectrum
and the Apple II) were ridiculously limited,
and completely out of that market.


They were supposed to be used mainly
as toys by children and their parents.
But they quickly grew up, in that unexplored market
Ten years later, in the early 1990s, they were much more
powerful, and starting to erode the minicomputer market
Twenty years later, in the early 2000s, the minicomputer
market collapsed in favour of the PC market
DEC and Data General don’t exist any more


SCHOOLING
model transposed from industry
to education in the 18th century

QUALITY
concept transposed from industry to
education in the 20th century


SCHOOLING IN THE LAST 200 YEARS

industrial
social

era
era

Industrial revolution:
fascination with the machine
Pedagogical and organizational processes reproduced
the repeatability and accuracy of the machine


INDUSTRIAL ERA
With the generalization of the public schools,
the organizational models of industry
were transposed to the schools.

Rows of desks, bells ringing, artificially separated
disciplines, learning out of context, instruction of
listening and answering, isolation and competition,
rigid national curricula, standard tests.
The industry has changed radically, since then, but
education keeps much of the old model.


INDUSTRIAL ERA

disciplinary learning

mechanical and industrial vision of learning
learning as ‘knowledge’ delivery (or ‘content’)
predominance of authority and hierarchy
praise of uniformity

primacy of quantity


SOCIAL ERA

industrial
social

era
era

The new forms of socialization provided by
communication networks (internet, cell phones)
are leading to a multitude of new opportunities
and promising approaches to learning


SOCIAL ERA

multi-, trans- and meta disciplinary learning

organic and social vision of learning
learning as transformation
predominance of leadership and collaboration

praise of difference

primacy of quality (supported by reasonable quantity)


industrial era
social era
disciplinary learning multidisciplinary learning
mechanical and industrial organic and social
vision of learning vision of learning
learning as ‘knowledge’ delivery learning as transformation
predominance of authority predominance of leadership
and hierarchy and collaboration
praise of uniformity praise of difference
primacy of quantity praise of quality (quantified)


IN WHICH ERA ARE WE?
industrial
social

era
era

Definitely, in the
industrial era!
We are building the 21st
century with the visions of
the 19th century http://leading-learning.blogspot.com/


http://leading-learning.blogspot.com/


WHAT SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE PRODUCING


WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS TODAY


QUALITY IN THE LAST 100 YEARS
THE
QUALITY
MOVEMENT
IN
INDUSTRY

Before
1900
Quality
as
an
integral
element
of
the
cra7

1900-‐1920
Quality
control
by
foreman

1920-‐1940
Inspec>on-‐based
quality-‐control

1940-‐1960
Sta>s>cal
process
control
Schools 2012
Inspectorate
1960-‐1980
Quality
assurance
(quality
department)

1980-‐1990
Total
quality
management
(TQM)

1990-‐Present
Culture
of
con>nuous
improvement,
organiza>on-‐wide
TQM

(Adapted from Sallis, E. (1996). Total Quality Management in Education, 2nd Ed. London: Kogan Page)


School Systems Corporate World
classical management: modern management:
control, repeatability, culture, commitment,
Management people as replaceable parts people as knowledge workers

analytical, centralized projective, collective,
Strategy and reactive and transformative
quality control, quality quality management,
Quality assurance, accountability quality as transformation
(mechanistic process) (social process)

Education has moved directly from ad hoc The corporate world is moving from
management to bureaucratic management bureaucratic and mechanistic management to
organic and ecological management
Increasingly emphasizes
and sees people as their most valuable asset
control and forgets people


It is interesting to notice how, as early as 1992, the
EFQM proposed the extension of ISO 9000 to Education
ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992
European Foundation for Quality Management

people satisfaction of
management collaborators
(9%) (9%)

policy & results of the
leadership processes satisfaction
strategy whole activity
(10%) (14%) of students (15%)
(8%) (20%)

resources impact on
(9%) society
(6%)


From the point of view of
the sociology of innovation

educational systems
are networks of actors

that reinforce each other
into stable configurations

These stable configurations
tend to prevent change


Some experts in innovation claim that
in such conservative echosystems

it is impossible to produce
innovations with lasting effects

the inertia of the system dilutes
or distorts the innovations
and converts them
to the reigning uniformity

It is like pouring water in the desert


This is not necessarily so dramatic!
Incremental innovation in
educational systems has
a high failure rate
but it can be explored
if sound innovation strategies
are crafted and managed
relying on dependable social theories,
such as Actor-Network-Theory
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005


However, the promising path to
innovation in the educational systems is
through disruptive innovation

that quietly grows in the margins
of the system, unobtrusively

until it starts changing
it, irreversibly

Clayton M. Christensen is an
inspiring author on this topic
McGraw-Hill, New York, 2008


Examples of disruptive innovations in the school systems:
•  Courses provided on-line to a region
or a whole country, namely:
•  courses for gifted students
•  enrichment classes for
special-needs children
•  optional courses in the languages,
arts, humanities, economics
•  distant support to homebound
and home-schooled students
•  private tutoring


•  Pilot schools trying out
new school models
•  Special schools for students wishing
to follow project-based learning

•  Experimental schools aimed at changing
transformationally the degraded social
communities to which they belong


These are examples of opportunities for
disruptive innovation that don’t clash against
the mainstream educational echo-system

In this way, innovation can
incubate at leisure until it
matures up to a level where
it can be transposed to the
mainstream system

4. THE INSPECTORATE

The inspectorate is the actor of the school echo-system
with the mandate to preserve the quality of the system

Does that mean to preserve the systems as it is?

Does it mean to help create the system as it should be?

Who decides what and how it should be?

Considering the highly conservative character of
the school echo-system, how can inspectorates
contribute to school innovation?

4. THE INSPECTORATE

Possible degrees of intervention:
•  tolerate school innovation
•  encourage school innovation
•  create frameworks for school innovation

Two possible alternatives:
•  through disruptive innovation
•  through (moderate) incremental innovation

4. THE INSPECTORATE

If the attempted innovations remain at the margins
of the conventional educational echo-system
following a disruptive path

or if they are based on
very cautious, strategically
managed, incremental innovation

They may succeed
and produce lasting effects

4. THE INSPECTORATE

Otherwise
and that’s what we
witness most of the time
they fail
and leave no lasting effects

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE
THIS SCENARIO?

5. CONCLUSIONS

“If we teach today’s students as we did yesterday’s,
we are robbing them of tomorrow”
John Dewey

We are building the 21st century with
the visions of the 19th century

As key actors in the echo-system where
this is happening, the inspectorates
can contribute to a much needed change

5. CONCLUSIONS

This implies:
reconsidering the aims and paradigms
of the school in today’s world

reflecting on the nature of quality
in today’s school echo-systems

and engaging in disruptive
(and incremental, when
possible) innovation

THE END
Innovation,
Quality and the
School Ecosystem:
Challenges to the
The slides will be available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/adﬁgueiredo
Inspectorate
Porto, Portugal – September 13-14, 2012
SICI WORKSHOP – Innovating Inspections
My Webpage:
to Value Innovative Schools
The Standing International Conferences of Inspectorates (SICI)
adﬁg.com

Innovation, Quality, and the School Ecosystem

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