What’s worth aiming for in educational innovation and change?

Results from international achievement test scores, such as PISA, ROSE, TIMSS, indicate national deficits in literacy and numeracy among OECD countries. In addition research findings indicate the inadequacy of inherited transmission models of teaching in generating critical thinking among pupils in lower secondary education. This book presents case studies from six European countries – Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland and Spain – based on capacity building with teachers to develop educational innovation and change in the science and mathematics classroom and school. The teacher educators developed a theoretical framing that was responsive to both culture and context. Educational innovation and change was positioned as a pedagogical and political text, a deliberative discursive inquiry that crossed borders between teachers, teacher educators and others, including policymakers. Findings show that while it is clearly necessary for teachers to form collaborative networks this is not sufficient to generate the level of creative and critical inquiry required for educational innovation and change in the classroom. New roles are required for all education actors to bring teachers, at all stages of their professional lifespan, beyond their classrooms and schools, into sustainable public spaces, incubation spaces, in a deliberative discourse with teacher educators and others, including policymakers. The study has implications for the way the education policy process is currently enacted and the roles played by various actors, including teachers, teacher educators, school administrators and policymakers alike.