The fragility of innovation in enriched and impoverished school settings

Abstract

Bereiter and Scardamalia (2003) stressed knowledge building as an alternative concept to learning in the classroom and there have been many reports of successful innovations that implement knowledge building (KB) pedagogy in classrooms. There have also been major local and international efforts to build a network of networks of innovation (Knowledge Building International Project) that leverages multiple levels of support to scale up KB practices. The design and operation of such a network aligns with a complex system view of how education transformations can be effected (Hargreaves, 2003). This paper 1) examines how far such an innovation network is succeeding in sustaining knowledge building as a pedagogical innovation; 2) sketches an ecological model for understanding the fragility of school-level innovations.