The culture of educational innovation in perspective of university managers

Abstract

This piece of research addresses a problem about the culture of educational innovation. The advance of research aims to recognize the values that academic managers associate with educational innovation. The method of study is qualitative. There were 25 academic managers including the management team and academic coordinators of bachelor's degree in a particular institution. The technique used was the interview and the instrument was a semi-structured guide which includes five analytical categories: conceptions, areas, factors, roles and dimensions of innovation. The results presented herein matched the 19 coordinators who were interviewed in the first phase of the study. Data from the 19 coordinators are presented in relation to the control variables and subsequently, at the descriptive level, there are the results obtained in the category of conceptions of educational innovation. The study provides information on the challenges to educational innovation and gives evidence of the diversity of conceptions of innovation, supports the idea to undertake efforts for a common framework that legitimizes the intentions and processes of educational innovation. The results provide elements to proceed with a route to relaunch innovation in the context of the study, promote greater and better spaces and moments for its development and generate conditions for its dissemination, in other words, to encourage culture of and for innovation.