Politics of Educational Innovations in Developing Countries

In the educational arena, new ideas often compete as solutions to recurrent problems, making the concept of "innovations" a widespread discursive term. While expectations are substantial for each innovation, implementation of ideas has shown them to be more modest in practice. This book examines innovations in several developing countries, presenting case studies of technological, curricular, and organizational innovations selected for their magnitude in financial investment, scope, and duration. The case studies explore the social and political contexts that shaped the features of these innovations and what they accomplished over time in terms of teacher cost reduction, status mobility, access to education, and national unity. The experience of countries such as Brazil, Lesotho, the Philippines, and Namibia, and the influence of international agencies such as the World Bank are described and analyzed against theories of social and organizational change. The case studies themselves also serve as subjects for reflection on the prevailing positivist approaches to research and knowledge. The Politics of Educational Innovations should be of considerable interest to students of educational change, wither in the academic world or in the fields of government and international cooperation.

Nelly P. Stromquist, Michael L. Basile

Chapter 1 Conceptual and Empirical Issues In Educational Innovations, Nelly P. Stromquist; Part 1 Pedagogical Innovations; Chapter 2 Knowledge and Curriculum, Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz; Chapter 3 Improving the Quality of Basic Education? the Strategies of the World Bank, Rosa-María Torres; Chapter 4 Power, Culture, and Transformation Educational Reform in Namibia, Sydney R. Grant; Part 2 Technological Innovations; Chapter 5 The Impact of Impact a Study of the Dissemination of an Educational Innovation in Six Countries, H. Dean Nielsen, William K. Cummings; Chapter 6 The Adoption of the National System of Telesecondary in Mexico, Félix Cadena; Chapter 7 Training Teachers at a Distance the Case of Logos Ii in Brazil, João BatistaFrançois Araujo e Oliveira, Orivel; Chapter 8 Education for Development in a Context of Dependency, Michael L.Basile; Chapter 9 Innovation and Research, Michael L. Basile, Nelly P. Stromquist;