Developing A Mechanism to Drive Innovative School for Basic Education in Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors and key components that affecting an innovative school framework thus developed a mechanism to drive innovative school administration in basic education, Thailand. The researchers employed an exploratory research design using qualitative approaches, namely document analysis, structured face-to-face interviews, and focus group discussions. This study was conducted in three phases in three prototype primary schools. The researchers investigated the key components that affect innovative school administration based on documents such as policy documents, strategic plans, educational reports, case studies, academic articles, and administrative guidelines. This was followed by structured interviews with 11 experts to validate the key components and seven driving factors found in the first phase to form an innovative school framework. In the final phase, a total of 21 practitioners participated in three series of focus group discussions to develop a mechanism to drive the innovative school framework. The results from the first phase revealed that components that affect the drive towards innovative school administration can be promoted in three levels, namely individual, organizational, and policy levels. Then, the researchers used the results of the first phase to develop a mechanism to drive innovative school administration using the Supplier-Input-Process-Outputs-Customers Model after cross examined by 11 experts in the second phase. The ultimate results revealed that there are seven factors to drive the mechanism, namely challenging shared vision, innovative habits, innovative strategy, flexible culture and atmosphere, open communication, flexible organization structure, and innovator team.