Educational Innovation in Cantabria and the Basque Country: a Comparative Study

The educational reforms have actually been school reforms, when it seems clear that the innovation processes are beyond the limits of the school. Promoting school participation in social and virtual networks and community development in general is a major challenge for modern educational systems. The research that is presented below aims to describe education innovation policies developed in the Autonomous Communities of Cantabria and the Basque Country. The research design is mixed. The first part is quantitative and ex post facto and it aims to describe and compare the educational innovation plans developed in these two local authorities. The second phase of the study is a continuation of the quantitative part and attempts to look in greater depth at specific aspects of the research topic. The selected population comprised 423 coordinators for innovation projects run in schools in both regions during the 2008-2009 academic year. A questionnaire was sent to all schools which obtained a response from 188 teachers (44.44%) and 6 discussion groups were held (three in each region). The information was analysed using SPSS 17.0 (quantitative part) and ANSWR (qualitative part) programs. The results indicate that the two regions are developing different perspectives of the change. Cantabria is choosing to open up schools to the community and the Basque Country is going for innovation based in schools. Schools that have felt the greatest impact of innovation are characterised by running more group brainstorming, they have clear operating rules, express more satisfaction with the advice they receive, get greater support from the management team and dedicate more time to developing innovation processes.