Innovation Readiness in Schools: Leadership Capacity, Teacher Preparedness, and Institutional Constraints
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/ajep.2872Keywords:
Innovation Readiness, Educational Leadership, Teacher Preparedness, School Governance, Institutional Change.Abstract
Purpose: Education systems across the globe are facing increasing challenges to innovate in education, learning, and student management while meeting ever-increasing policy, privacy, and accountability needs. Despite a high level of investment in education innovation, there has been a lack of success in various education systems due to a lack of innovation readiness. The purpose of this study is to introduce and empirically investigate the concept of innovation readiness in schools, with a focus on leadership, teacher, and institutional readiness.
Materials and Methods: The study design was descriptive and exploratory in nature. The data collection instrument was a structured innovation readiness tool that was used to collect data from 225 school leaders and teachers from public and private schools. However, only 174 responses were considered valid. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and comparative analysis between roles.
Findings: The results show that leadership vision and teacher professional development are the best predictors of innovation readiness. Schools that had a clearly developed innovation strategy and professional development processes recorded higher levels of innovation readiness. However, school-level constraints such as compliance capacity and financial sustainability were identified as major inhibitors of innovation. Role-based analysis revealed that there is a perception gap in measuring innovation readiness. School leaders overestimate their schools’ levels of innovation readiness compared to teachers.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This research extends the concept of organizational readiness theory into the realm of education innovation, with readiness being defined as a quantifiable, multi-dimensional construct. It provides a policy-congruent, practice-driven model that will allow education leaders and policymakers to thoughtfully navigate the process from innovation desire to responsible, sustainable execution
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