Understanding innovation in education: where do we stand?

In spite of considerable public spending on education, there is still little innovation policy in the education sector nor measure of the impact of top-down reforms and bottom-up decisions. The chapter presents two approaches recently used to measure the innovation intensity of the education sector: one surveying employees, one monitoring changes over time in classroom practices, internal school practices and external relation practices of schools. Both approaches point to more innovation in education than is often acknowledged. While measurement should be a key dimension of a country’s innovation strategy in education, the paper highlights four other drivers of innovation-friendly ecosystems in education: educational research and development; work organisation; the mobilisation of general purpose technology (and notably ICT); the organisation and regulation of education systems. The chapter concludes by calling for a new international collaborative research agenda on these domains.