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What Does Innovation Mean and Why Does it Matter?

Innovation in Chinese Higher Education in a Global Era

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Part of the book series: Spotlight on China ((SPOT))

Abstract

Carolyn Mooney’s question, posed in a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (2014), aptly captures our motivation for writing this chapter. Why has “innovation” become a global buzzword in the discourse of educational philanthropists, policy makers, and pundits? What explains the saliency of innovation as the (disruptive or salutatory) silver bullet that should direct “the future of college” (Wood, 2014)? When educators and reformers advocate for innovation at both the institutional and individual level, to what social, economic, and political conditions are they responding? And what and whose purposes do their stated desires to nurture innovation serve? This chapter explores these questions primarily from the perspective of how innovation is employed in the national policies, academic discourses, and institutional contexts of higher education in China.

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© 2016 Sense Publishers

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Ross, H., Wang, Y. (2016). What Does Innovation Mean and Why Does it Matter?. In: Guo, S., Guo, Y. (eds) Spotlight on China. Spotlight on China. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-881-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-881-7_14

  • Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-6209-881-7

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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