Educational innovation meanings. What does it mean for teachers in Chile?

Knowledge society, new reforms and a growing social demand for better schools have led to an increasing need for Educative Innovation. In this context, is relevant to explore what teachers understand by innovation. The main objective of this article is to describe how teachers in Chile understand the concept of Educative Innovation. To do this, qualitative methods were used. Structured interviews were conducted, and the responses were analyzed inductively. The analysis was complemented later with a deductive phase in which semi-structured interviews were conducted to a group of teachers. The findings were finally countered with the meanings found on literature review. Results showed that Educative Innovation is not a univocal term. Nevertheless, Chilean teachers mostly associate it with curricular changes aimed to improve and necessary to comply with the times and new students. Besides, they conceive those changes as isolated alterations, without formal processes of critique or institutionalization. Results suggest also that teachers conceive educational innovation from a practical-reflexive paradigm. However, they feel conditioned by a system that is recently overcoming a technological paradigm.