Infrastructuring Multilevel Connected Learning and the Agility for STEM Curriculum Innovation

Abstract

<p>Would teachers be able to respond with agility and remain on track in their education innovation initiatives in the face of unanticipated external disruptions? This study aims to understand whether and how teachers persist with the innovation efforts they have embarked on when macro-level crisis conditions hit, such as the emergency online teaching that was instituted for extended periods of time due to the COVID pandemic. This study uses the MultiLevel MultiScale (MLMS) model to analyze the infrastructuring efforts made by two schools that had engaged in the same school-university partnership innovation network before the COVID pandemic disruptions started but responded rather differently at the school level in the ensuing 1.5 years. The study finds that the infrastructuring work affected the scope within which teachers can stay on track with their innovation plans, and hence the resultant education innovation agility of a school.</p>