Challenges to Innovation in Japanese Tertiary Educational Institutions : The Case of Advanced CEP

In light of the ongoing developments with the Advanced Levels of the Communicative English Program (CEP), this paper considers some of the background literature that discusses change and innovation in educational institutions It is argued that change agents should learn as much as possible about the organizational culture of the school. The potential level of political vulnerability that might be experienced by innovators, and the real world needs of the stakeholders should also be identified before implementing refouns The description of the educational envirorunent, stakeholders and strategies taken in the development of Advanced CEP will hopefully to serve as a reference to potential change agents as they consider ways and means to create improved learning environments at their schools and institutions. Introduction This paper presents the early stages of the curriculum innovation underway in the Advanced Communicative English Program (Advanced CEP) at Nilgata University of International and Information Studies. Following a review of the literature discussing innovation and curriculum development, the setting, stakeholders and strategies will be described. Based upon important principles from research in curriculum development, this paper will reflect upon why the attempts to iunovate at this school are seen as on the path towards success. Review of the LiteratUre In this section, considerations about some of the conditions that are believed to be important for the success of innovations will be consrdered Because of the vast amount of literature dealing with the subject of curriculum development in TESOL, this discussion shall be limited by necessity to definitions and theoretical models which> it is believed, have a direct bearing on the later discussions of this case study Definitions and Models The distinction of innovation, and how this differs from the notion of change is a frequent topic of discussion in the literature (Markee 2001; Kennedy 1999; White, 1995) Damanpour and Evan (1984), identify two basic fonus bf innovation: Product lhnovations (new things or materials) and Process Innovations (new ways of doing things or paradigm shifts in the manner in which a situation is perceived): Osboume (1998), who studied voluntary non-profit organizations and innovations in public services, identifies further categories, stating that those who innovate in these environments use a combination of product and process approaches. His typology of innovations includes developm~ntal innovations, in which the present system is modified for the current end users, expansionary innovations, whereLnew services are offered to new end users, evolutionary innovations, those being when new services are created for existing end users, and finally, total iunovations, which are completely new innovations for a new group of users. Ihnovation in this paper is defined as ideas or practices that are perceived by the end users as new. Innovations are a result of a conscious use of specialist knowledge that has been intentionally designed to improve a specific educational setting. This term will be used interchangeably with the idea of language curriculum reforms, regardless of whether they are top-down or *Cregory Hadley [fH*~:~f~~~~]