Title: Learning throughout the innovation journey: a new dimension to learning as a search process

Authors: Gitte Miller Balslev

Addresses: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Science Education and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, DK-5230, Denmark

Abstract: This paper explores learning processes of professionals in a case of innovation in education. Learning of professionals is here defined as a collective search process - in contrast to a predominant understanding of innovation in the public sector where learning primarily leads to knowledge gain and can be limited to the idea-generating phase. Based on a case study of a concrete innovation process in an educational network the working hypothesis is that practice learning comes as iterative search processes through discovery and takes place throughout innovation. A key finding points to learning through search has different characteristics and dimensions, and hence has effect on organisational culture and identity. The author argues that there is an until now uncovered part of the learning process with implications for understanding learning in funded public sector projects, and hence the paper contributes to a change in the way learning can be understood in educational innovation.

Keywords: innovation; education; practice learning; professional learning communities; educational networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIIE.2021.118036

International Journal of Innovation in Education, 2021 Vol.7 No.2, pp.86 - 101

Received: 23 Sep 2020
Accepted: 05 Feb 2021
Published online: 08 Oct 2021 *

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