Our education systems must provide access to quality and equitable educational opportunities so all students can reach their full potential. Increasingly urgent issues, such as environmental threats, economic crises, and the recent global pandemic, have highlighted the need for education systems to be flexible and resilient in times of stress to…

This study explores how early childhood education and basic education teachers develop and develop innovations within the decentralised educational system of Finland. The comprehensive dataset of 20 field interviews provides a range of insights into teachers' goals, principles, inspirations and experiences when working with a variety of…

With the rising prevalence of digital data, infrastructures and platforms in education, the challenge of conceptualizing and investigating 'intermediaries' has substantially increased. This not only refers to various new types of actors that have been materializing around practices of data infrastructuring (e.g., data management), but equally to…

Purpose: This study examines the critical elements that contribute to the effective adoption of educational digital resources (EDRs) in schools, with a focus on school principals and their leadership, from a strategic pedagogical standpoint. Design/methodology/approach: Using survey data from 200 school principals, measurement and structure models…

By applying cultural-historical activity theory and expansive learning theory to educational research, this volume illuminates new forms of educational activities as collaborative interventions in schools and communities where learners and practitioners generate expansive learning so that they can collectively transform their activities and expand…

As global challenges to sustainable development are increasing, there is a growing pressure for educational systems to embed education for sustainable development (ESD) into formal education. To meet this demand, Eco-School systems were established in many countries during the past decades. Using General Inductive Approach to analyze raw data…

Teachers have been called upon to be more entrepreneurial in their approaches to change. However, the universities in which preservice teachers learn and the schools in which teachers practice tend to emphasize standards, accountability, and risk-management, while traditional entrepreneurial conceptions of innovation tend to promote risk-taking…

This article explores the shift towards place-based education, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating for innovative, flexible teaching methods. Integrating local environments and communities into education fosters active citizenship and social engagement, particularly benefiting Indigenous communities. Reflecting on personal experiences,…

Background: The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other organizations have spent millions of dollars each year supporting well-designed educational innovations that positively impact the undergraduate engineering students who encounter them. However, many of these pedagogical innovations never experience widespread adoption. To further the…

The importance of teacher leaders has been increasingly emphasized in innovative educational practices. In this study, we present the experiences of innovative teacher leaders (N = 10) in Lithuania. The sample of respondents is qualitative-purposive. Teachers who have been awarded for their innovative practice took part in the study. In addition,…

Due to the "wicked problem" of the Academy's resistance to innovation, new teaching and learning programs struggle to become integrated into the fabric of the Academy, which slows the uptake of evidence-based practices. This wicked problem is rooted in the lack of slow, intentional mechanisms for cultural change in the Academy. In this…

This research explored how digital leaders, being teachers responsible for integrating technologies into teaching, envisaged their roles. Bottom-up content analysis of metaphors from 55 digital leaders revealed a typology describing them as change agents across three 'extent' and two 'depth' dimensions. Most leaders described "the extent of…

Background: Teachers are responsible for curriculum implementation and transformation. Therefore, they are viewed as the primary agents of change in teaching and learning. As agents of change, they are responsible for being innovative and creative in their teaching and learning in their English First Additional Language (EFAL) class. Objectives:…

To improve teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and enhance their practice. Roles at the middle tier of education systems, or those professionals working between the school and central level, offer unique capacities to facilitate collaboration, broker knowledge, scale…

Academic departments are thought to be highly productive units of change in higher education. This paper investigates department-level instructional change via case studies analyzed with two change frameworks. One framework embodies prescribed change, emphasizing leader actions. The other framework embodies emergent change, emphasizing…