Abstract
The main purpose of the study is to investigate the possible effect of school teachers’ collaborative networks on their individual innovativeness and the innovative school climate. In addition, 174 Greek primary school teachers’ views were explored about their collaboration networks (three collaboration types), their perceived individual innovativeness, the possible existence of innovative school climate, and the support they received in order to promote and/or produce new ideas and practices. Results showed that most of the participant school teachers belong to two categories of the five in the individual innovativeness scale, the early adopters and the early majority, although 20% belongs to innovators. Teachers’ collaboration network types affect innovative school climate and their individual innovativeness, but there were not found correlation between innovative school climate and perceived teachers’ innovativeness. However, collaborative networks within school have a higher effect on teachers’ innovativeness, and innovative school climate can be predicted by the network within school and among schools, as well as by the support that school teachers receive.
 
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Highlights
Innovation in education, as in all sectors of the economy and society, is essential imperative, as it can lead to greater efficiency and improved quality of education (OECD, 2016)
The present study aimed to explore the views of primary school teachers about their collaboration networking based on the three categories networks proposed by Moolenaar et al (2010), their perceived individual innovativeness, the existence of innovative school climate, and the support they received in order to promote and/or produce innovative ideas and practices
Even though the present study is limited due to the choice of collecting data through questionnaires only and due to the application in one educational context, i.e. the Greek one, it does provide evidence on how primary school teachers view their own innovativeness in relation to collaborative networks developed, the general innovative school climate and the support they receive in order to collaborate
Summary
Innovation in education, as in all sectors of the economy and society, is essential imperative, as it can lead to greater efficiency and improved quality of education (OECD, 2016). Despite the positive opinions of researchers about the importance of innovation and the encouraging results, educational systems in general remain largely reluctant to innovate. For this reason, educational researchers wanted to explore methods and strategies that can support and promote innovation in schools and, the development of individual innovativeness for school teachers and the innovative school climate. Educational researchers wanted to explore methods and strategies that can support and promote innovation in schools and, the development of individual innovativeness for school teachers and the innovative school climate Among other things, they explore interactive models, such as collaborative networks. The traditional way of educating and training teachers can be considered obsolete, as it maintains their isolation and does not allow for systematic interaction and exchange of new ideas between teachers
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