Value Conflicts in the Management of Innovation: supporting information technology innovation in initial teacher training in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

This paper is concerned with the process of innovation at both the institutional and personal‐professional levels. The focus is on the practical and moral dilemmas of managing innovation in the context of coercive policies imposed from outside. Innovation is defined as any activity or practice which involves human beings in changes to established routines. It is always embedded in a unique, multi‐level context. Qualitative methods are used to examine the case of five institutions in the UK working within a funded project to introduce more effective use of information technology in initial teacher education. The aim of the paper is to use the case to generate theories which, although they cannot be generalised to other contexts, can inform the thinking of those responsible for the management of innovation in other institutions.