This book investigates the interrelationship between educational reforms and pedagogical and technological innovations, as well as the implications of this relationship for the quality of human capital. By analyzing recent educational reforms in Russia and the US, the authors shed new light on how these reforms may help or hinder innovations, such as the introduction of computer technologies into classrooms, new methods of teacher evaluation, constructivist teaching methods, and governance in public schools.

Taking labor economics as a useful lens for conceptualizing the diffusion of innovation, in the first part of the book the authors analyze book how certain power arrangements can block educational innovations in schools. In the second part they examine recent educational reforms in the US and Russia. The final part presents a vision of the next generation of educational reforms, which may enable innovation diffusion, rather than hamper it.

Autorentext
Alexander M. Sidorkin currently serves as Dean of the College of Education at Sacramento State University, and has a research appointment at National Research University Higher School of Economics. His scholarly interests include philosophy and economics of education, educator preparation, and innovation studies in education.

Mark Warford of State University of New York College at Buffalo is Chair of Modern and Classical Languages and a Research and Innovation Felllow for the SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence. His main areas of scholarship include: educational innovations, sociocultural theory, applied linguistics, and teacher development.

Inhalt
Introduction.- 1 Educational Innovation Diffusion: Confronting Complexities.- 2 The Nature of Educational Innovation.- 3 People Matters: Innovations in Institutionally Weak Context.- 4 Innovators from Within and from Without the Education System.- 5 Identifying Factors Associated with the Survival and Success of Grassroots Educational Innovations.- 6 Understanding Technology Integration Failures in Education: The Need for Zero-Order Barriers.- 7 Human Capital and Innovations in Education.- Conclusion.