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Analyzes the ambiguity of what counts as an innovation and the pro-innovation bias in business and government discourses, including the risk of harmful consequences for learners, agency, and teachers’ professionalism. Uses critical perspectives to frame innovation as a concept requiring careful educational judgment.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/problematizing-the-imperative-to-innovate-an-examination-of-innovations-in-adult-literacy/589240/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/problematizing-the-imperative-to-innovate-an-examination-of-innovations-in-adult-literacy/589240.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Đào","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the document describe “innovation” in adult literacy education?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It presents “innovation” as a ubiquitous term used in education marketing and awards, suggesting it is treated as inherently positive without clear definition.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the author argue innovation needs to be problematized?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Because the criteria for innovation are vague about what the innovation is better for, and celebrating it as inherently good can obscure questionable or damaging effects.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What concerns are raised about educational innovation?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The document highlights pressures to pursue novelty, technocratic/economistic discourse, and the risk that initiatives focused on measurable efficiency can affect learners’ understanding, agency, and teachers’ professionalism.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},589240,1792189159,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":34,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1374402968488,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION SPRING 2023  \n[http://doi.org/10.35847/KYasukawa.5.2.39](http://doi.org/10.35847/KYasukawa.5.2.39)  \nForum: Innovation and Adult Literacy  \n(Part 1 of3)  \nProblematizing the Imperative to Innovate: An Examination of Innovations in Adult Literacy  \nKeikoYasukawa, University of Technology Sydney  \nInnovation is a ubiquitous word in education. It would be unusual not to see some claim of an innovative learning environment or program on websites and other marketing materials of education providers. Awards are given to innovative practitioners. In Australia, for example,  \nThe Excellence in Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) Practice Award recognises innovation and excellence by an individual involved in improving LLN skills in an educational, community or workplace context. (Australian Training Awards, n.d.-a, para. 8; emphasis added)  \nHowever, if one were unsure about what would be considered an innovation, they would be none the wiser when they read the explanation of the criterion:  \nCriterion 1: Excellence and innovation in LLN delivery  \nHow have you demonstrated excellence and innovation in your approach to the design and delivery of adult LLN programs? For example, you may consider:  \n• innovative approaches to training program design, delivery and evaluation  \n• innovative approaches to deliver LLN training and assessment in flexible and engaging ways  \n• highly effective or unique methods for improving collaboration between vocational staff and foundation skills specialists  \n• strategies to integrate and contextualize LLN training  \n• collaboration and partnerships  \n• positive outcomes. (Australian Training Awards, n.d.-b, n. p.)  \nIt appears that innovation is something that is self-evident: “you know it when you see it.”  \nIn this Forum piece, I argue that innovation in adult literacy (and perhaps in education generally) is a concept that needs to be problematized. While there appears to be a general agreement in the education and wider social science literature about the definition of innovation, expressed for example as: “the application of a better product, idea or method”(Ellis, 2017, p. 41), the problem is the lack of specificity in what the innovation is better for when celebrating innovation as ifit is inherently good.  \nProblematizing innovation is not an original idea: critiques ofthe implied normalization of desiring innovation can be found in the scholarly literature. Drawing on a Marxist critique, some scholars of critical innovation studies argue that there is a pro-innovation bias in contemporary business and government discourses that ignores the reality that the value of some innovations may be at best questionable (Leary, 2019; Walsh, 2021) . For example, Leary (2019), who argues that innovation is a “capitalist buzzword,” suggests that contemporary references to innovation come with  \nan implied sense of benevolence; we rarely talk of innovative creditdefault swaps or innovative chemical weapons, but innovation they plainly are. The destructive skepticism of the false-prophet innovator has been redeemed as the profit-making insight of the technological visionary. (p. 94)  \nIt should not be difficult to find application of a  \n[Correspondence: Keiko.Yasukawa@uts.edu.au](Correspondence: Keiko.Yasukawa@uts.edu.au) 39  \n“better” product, idea or method in education that may be better from one perspective (for example, in terms of cost and speed) to have questionable or clearly damaging consequences such as on students’ understanding, agency or sense of purpose in what they are supposed to be learning and/ or on teachers’ professionalism and agency.  \nProblematizing Innovation in Education  \nCritical analysis of innovation in the wider social science literature calls for a reflection on how the term is used in education. Here, too, there are scholars who have reflected on the uncritical pursuit of innovation. The philosopher of education Gert Biesta (2020) writes:  \nEducation,","cbCaioMjmEaHc1OR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioMjmEaHc1OR","pdf",102713,"English","# Problematizing the Imperative to Innovate\n## Innovation as a self-evident claim in education\n## Ambiguity of what counts as innovation\n## Pro-innovation bias and critical innovation studies\n## Educational critiques and technocratic framing\n## Open and social innovation perspectives","[{\"question\":\"How does the document describe “innovation” in adult literacy education?\",\"answer\":\"It presents “innovation” as a ubiquitous term used in education marketing and awards, suggesting it is treated as inherently positive without clear definition.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author argue innovation needs to be problematized?\",\"answer\":\"Because the criteria for innovation are vague about what the innovation is better for, and celebrating it as inherently good can obscure questionable or damaging effects.\"},{\"question\":\"What concerns are raised about educational innovation?\",\"answer\":\"The document highlights pressures to pursue novelty, technocratic/economistic discourse, and the risk that initiatives focused on measurable efficiency can affect learners’ understanding, agency, and teachers’ professionalism.\"}]","Problematizing the Imperative to Innovate - An Examination of Innovations in Adult Literacy | PDF",1792066815,18]