Building the Innovation School

"There is no shortage of "innovations" on offer for schools. Hardly a week passes without a tech mogul, edu-preneur, TED Talk thought-leader, or PAC-backed politicians trotting out the latest app, service, curricular add-on, or instructional technique that, we are told, is sure to cure the perennial woes of systemic education. This book is an investigation of this enchantment with "innovation" and its implications for everyday teaching and learning and the future of public education. Through a three-year study of The Innovation School, a new public high school organized around makerspaces, design thinking, and personalized technology, the book challenges conventional wisdom about how educational transformation unfolds. It argues that the popular understanding of innovation as a "disruptive" force applied into classrooms and schools exacerbates inequality and undermines teacher and student autonomy. It suggests an alternate orientation is needed - one that locates innovation not as something dropped into classroom practice, but that emerges out of it - an innovation from below. The book demonstrates how attending to the "infrastructures" of innovation can lead to educational change that is driven by the interests and values of educators rather than the peddlers of the latest innovation-of-the-day. This is a vision of innovation that is not rooted in "disruption" but in "repair" - a commitment to remaking schools to serve the common good, and to allow all students to flourish"--