Regulation and innovation : stimulating students’ creativity and thinking through innovation education in Ingunnarskóli

Fyrirlestur haldinn á „Den 10. nordiske læreruddannelseskongres” sem haldin var í Kennaraháskóla Íslands 21.-24. maí 2008This paper examines the discourse concerning the implementation of innovation education (IE), which was introduced into the Icelandic national curriculum in 1999. Innovation education calls for flexible organization, giving value to student voice, eliciting the tacit knowledge of students and situated learning. The purpose of the research is to understand the regulative and instructional discourse in the implementation of IE and how schools, teachers and students experience the 'innovation' which underlies innovation education. The research was conducted in Ingunnarskóli, a compulsory school in Iceland in the school year 2006-2007. In the spirit of feminist and participatory research the approach taken was to choose a design where the participants in the research are active partakers and have something to gain from the research. Data was collected through field observations in innovation education classes, in general classes, free periods, lunch breaks, coffee breaks, and at IE teachers meetings. Also through interviews with IE teachers, the head teacher and students. This paper describes the development of innovation education in Ingunnarskóli and how it connected with other developmental work in the school, what was new, as well as emerging issues and surprises. In this study, concepts from the work of Basil Bernstein such as classification and framing, and recognition and realization rules are used to explore innovation education at Ingunnarskóli. The concepts of regulative and instructional discourse are used to understand the influence of underlying respect, power and responsibility. The paper also draws on the ecological approach described by Bronfenbrenner in order to understand interactions within the pedagogical discourse as described by Bernstein. Findings show that personal and professional values influence the way in which innovation education is being taught. The regulative discourse in schools seems to include contradicting notions of innovation and tradition which in turn affect the nature of instructional discourse