The Renewal of a Concept: Analyzing “Innovation” Through The Five Contexts Framework

Abstract

In Cooper’s and White’s “Distinguished Performances: The Educative Role of Disciplines in Qualitative Research in Education” published in the International Review of Qualitative Research (2009), Cooper and White describe programs of research that led them to develop “The Five Contexts,” a analytical framework for conducting, understanding, and interpreting qualitative research in education and in other disciplines (169). That article ends with a question: “How can we delve more deeply into The Five Contexts to develop greater understanding of issues that cross disciplinary lines?” (185). This paper applies The Five Contexts framework to a theoretical analysis of the term “innovation”. As education researchers embarking on a research project on innovation in social sciences and humanities education, Cooper and Waterman view innovation literature, especially the work of Benoît Godin, through the lenses of The Five Contexts—autobiographical, historical, political, postmodern, and philosophical. The discussion provides a critical analysis of the term “innovation” in the educational context. It suggests that the concept of innovation in education may be due for a renewal, in the sense of a return of the old as new and a broader concept of innovation beyond information technology, which is becoming status quo. This paper provides an example of employing The Five Contexts analytical framework as a tool for theoretical analysis, with “innovation” as the concept being explored.