Overcoming the Barriers to Educational Innovation: A literature review

Kieron Kirkland, Dan Sutch

01 August 2009

By reviewing the literature in the field and interrogating data from a range of Futurelab projects, this publication aims to set out some of the challenges of promoting and supporting innovation, particularly concerning the effective sharing of innovative practices. The review builds on a wide range of literature about innovation and change with a particular focus upon innovations that aim to take advantage of the affordances of digital technologies. By doing this, the review aims to highlight some of the characteristics of successful shared innovation at different ‘layers of influence’ and attempts to portray how the enabling conditions for innovation can be understood and affected by a range of actors.

This review was written by Futurelab and commissioned by Becta as part of a research and development programme aimed at supporting the delivery of the Harnessing Technology Strategy.