1. 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)

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

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

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

5. Incremental innovations build on existing thinking, products, processes, organizations, or social systems INCREMENTAL INNOVATION They can be routine improvements or they can be dramatic breakthroughs but they apply to what already exists 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

6. INCREMENTAL INNOVATION Airplanes that fly farther Batteries that last longer Televisions with better images Computers that process faster Examples of incremental innovations: Schools where students learn better by regularly using the Net 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

7. Disruptive innovations are addressed to people who do not have any solutions DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION 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

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

9. DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION The first personal computers (like the Spectrum and the Apple II) were ridiculously limited, and completely out of that market. 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. 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

10. DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION 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 They were supposed to be used mainly as toys by children and their parents. DEC and Data General don’t exist any more 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

11. 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY 3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM 5. CONCLUSIONS 4. THE INSPECTORATE

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

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

14. 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. INDUSTRIAL ERA The industry has changed radically, since then, but education keeps much of the old model. 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY

15. disciplinary learning learning as ‘knowledge’ delivery (or ‘content’) mechanical and industrial vision of learning predominance of authority and hierarchy praise of uniformity primacy of quantity 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY INDUSTRIAL ERA

16. 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 industrial era industrial era social era social era social era social era 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY

17. multi-, trans- and meta disciplinary learning learning as transformation organic and social vision of learning predominance of leadership and collaboration praise of difference primacy of quality (supported by reasonable quantity) SOCIAL ERA 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY

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

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

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

21. WHAT SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE PRODUCING 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY

22. WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS TODAY

23. QUALITY IN THE LAST 100 YEARS 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY THE QUALITY MOVEMENT IN INDUSTRY Before 1900Quality as an integral element of the craft 1900-1920Quality control by foreman 1920-1940Inspection-based quality-control 1940-1960Statistical process control 1960-1980Quality assurance (quality department) 1980-1990Total quality management (TQM) 1990-PresentCulture of continuous improvement, organization-wide TQM (Adapted from Sallis, E. (1996). Total Quality Management in Education, 2nd Ed. London: Kogan Page) Schools 2012 Inspectorate

24. School SystemsCorporate World Management Strategy Quality classical management: control, repeatability, people as replaceable parts modern management: culture, commitment, people as knowledge workers analytical, centralized and reactive projective, collective, and transformative Education has moved directly from ad hoc management to bureaucratic management 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 quality control, quality assurance, accountability (mechanistic process) Increasingly emphasizes control and forgets people 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY

25. leadership (10%) people management (9%) policy & strategy (8%) resources (9%) processes (14%) satisfaction of collaborators (9%) satisfaction of students (20%) impact on society (6%) results of the whole activity (15%) ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY It is interesting to notice how, as early as 1992, the EFQM proposed the extension of ISO 9000 to Education

26. leadership (10%) people management (9%) policy & strategy (8%) resources (9%) processes (14%) satisfaction of collaborators (9%) satisfaction of students (20%) impact on society (6%) results of the whole activity (15%) 2. SCHOOLING & QUALITY ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management It is interesting to notice how, as early as 1992, the EFQM proposed the extension of ISO 9000 to Education

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

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

29. 2. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM

30. 3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM it is impossible to produce innovations with lasting effects the inertia of the system dilutes or distorts the innovations Some experts in innovation claim that in such conservative echosystems and converts them to the reigning uniformity It is like pouring water in the desert

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

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

33. 3. THE SCHOOL ECHOSYSTEM 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 Examples of disruptive innovations in the school systems:

34. 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 social communities to which they belong

35. 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

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

37. 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?

38. tolerate school innovation encourage school innovation create frameworks for school innovation Possible degrees of intervention: 4. THE INSPECTORATE through (moderate) incremental innovation through disruptive innovation Two possible alternatives:

39. If the attempted innovations remain at the margins of the conventional educational echo-system They may succeed following a disruptive path or if they are based on very cautious, strategically managed, incremental innovation and produce lasting effects 4. THE INSPECTORATE

40. Otherwise they fail and that’s what we witness most of the time and leave no lasting effects HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THIS SCENARIO? 4. THE INSPECTORATE

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

42. “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

43. This implies: reconsidering the aims and paradigms of the school in today’s world 5. CONCLUSIONS reflecting on the nature of quality in today’s school echo-systems and engaging in disruptive (and incremental, when possible) innovation

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