Innovation , Quality and the School Ecosystem : Challenges to the Inspectorate

Innovation, QualityandtheSchoolEcosystem: Challenges to theInspectorate 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

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION Two radically differenttypes of innovation: If we mix them up,innovation rarely happens incremental innovation disruptive innovation

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION 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

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION 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

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION 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

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION But as they gain strength in the realm of non-competition they evolve very fast and end up replacing the traditional solutions

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION 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.

1. TYPES OF INNOVATION DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION 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

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY SCHOOLING • model transposed from industry to education in the 18th century QUALITY • concept transposed from industry to education in the 20th century

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY SCHOOLING IN THE LAST 200 YEARS industrial era social era industrial era Industrial revolution: fascination with the machine Pedagogical and organizational processes reproduced the repeatabilityand accuracy of the machine

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY 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 keepsmuch of the old model.

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY 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

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY SOCIAL ERA industrial era social era social 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

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY 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)

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

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY IN WHICH ERA ARE WE? industrial era industrial era social era Definitely, in the industrial era! We are building the 21st century with the visions of the 19th century http://leading-learning.blogspot.com/

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY http://leading-learning.blogspot.com/

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY WHAT SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE PRODUCING

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS TODAY

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY QUALITY IN THE LAST 100 YEARS Schools 2012 Inspectorate (Adapted from Sallis, E. (1996). Total Quality Management in Education, 2nd Ed. London: KoganPage)

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY modern management: culture, commitment, people as knowledge workers classical management: control, repeatability, people as replaceable parts analytical, centralized and reactive projective, collective, and transformative • quality control, quality assurance, accountability • (mechanistic process) quality management, quality as transformation (social process) The corporate world is moving from bureaucratic and mechanistic management to organic and ecological management and sees people as their most valuable asset Education has moved directly from ad hoc management to bureaucratic management Increasingly emphasizes controland forgets people

2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY • 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 peoplemanagement (9%) satisfaction of collaborators (9%) results of the whole activity (15%) policy & strategy (8%) satisfaction of students (20%) leadership (10%) processes (14%) impact onsociety (6%) resources (9%)

3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM From the point of view of the sociology of innovation educational systemsare networks of actors that reinforce each other into stable configurations These stable configurations tend to prevent change

2. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM

3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM 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

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

3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM 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

3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM 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

3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM • 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 socialcommunities to which they belong

3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM 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, QualityandtheSchoolEcosystem: Challenges to theInspectorate The slides willbeavailableat: http://www.slideshare.net/adfigueiredo MyWebpage: adfig.com Porto, Portugal – September 13-14, 2012 SICI WORKSHOP – Innovating Inspections to Value Innovative Schools The Standing International Conferences of Inspectorates (SICI)

Innovation , Quality and the School Ecosystem : Challenges to the Inspectorate