Educational innovations at the present time and ruptures in the modern paradigm: an analysis of the educational research of the University of Geneva

ABSTRACT

The 1990s have been configured as a time of shift in the line of thought and of organizing schoolwork and teacher training. These changes are associated with the diagnosis that schools are having trouble to maintain a desirable level of learning and that they have failed in their role of teaching in an effective way for all. Such context of crisis is also of processes changing. This study brings about innovations in the field of schoolwork and teacher training from the production and experience of researchers at the Laboratoire de Recherche Innovation, Formation, Éducation (LIFE), in the University of Geneva, in Switzerland. Of exploratory and qualitative nature and utilizing the content analysis methodology as proposed by Bardin (1977), this study was guided by means of questioning: what do the productions of LIFE bring about when discussing innovation of pedagogical practices and teacher training? Despite all innovation having a degree of difficulty and resistance, not all possess the same level of reaction, since they can operate within different levels of change, being complex to different degrees. While certain innovations wish to reach the structures themselves, which define the organizational culture of schooling institutions such as the time and space that shape their work, others operate on the work itself, as methodologies and course material.

Keywords
Educational innovations; School cultures; Present time; University of Geneva in Switzerland

ABSTRACT

The 1990s have been configured as a time of shift in the line of thought and of organizing schoolwork and teacher training. These changes are associated with the diagnosis that schools are having trouble to maintain a desirable level of learning and that they have failed in their role of teaching in an effective way for all. Such context of crisis is also of processes changing. This study brings about innovations in the field of schoolwork and teacher training from the production and experience of researchers at the Laboratoire de Recherche Innovation, Formation, Éducation (LIFE), in the University of Geneva, in Switzerland. Of exploratory and qualitative nature and utilizing the content analysis methodology as proposed by Bardin (1977), this study was guided by means of questioning : what do the productions of LIFE bring about when discussing innovation of pedagogical practices and teacher training? Despite all innovation having a degree of difficulty and resistance, not all possess the same level of reaction, since they can operate within different levels of change, being complex to different degrees. While certain innovations wish to reach the structures themselves, which define the organizational culture of schooling institutions such as the time and space that shape their work, others operate on the work itself, as methodologies and course material.