Inclusive Innovation is an R&D model that seeks to affect change by supporting communities and schools in co-designing solutions that embody novel and differentiated approaches. Inclusive Innovation starts by intentionally creating and catalyzing opportunities for communities—including students, parents, families, organizers—to be at the education R&D table with district leaders, educators, researchers, and developers.
Not only are communities at the table, they are engaging as:
Holding positions of power and decision-making
Guiding the research, design, and creation of solutions
Defining outcomes that are of value to both communities and schools
Schools and communities are leading. Digital Promise is facilitating, supporting, and resourcing their work in collaboration with researchers and developers.
The process of Inclusive Innovation moves iteratively through a set of intersecting stages. Our v2.0 model updated in 2023 acknowledges the importance of readiness and preparation to engage, the value of building trust upfront and throughout and the progress from understanding the challenge to implementing and scaling a solution.
Below describes the focus for the protocols guiding each phase of the process:
To engage in R&D, it is important for participants to prepare to embark on the journey with the creation of a “primer” that sets a foundation for the work together.
The focus of the phase is on setting the stage for trust and relationship building as an effective continual practice that supports teams in collaboration.
The focus of the phase is on facilitating exploration of the challenge through community-led research and, based on learnings, define the core challenge statement, its root causes, and the definition of progress outcomes.
The focus of the phase is on the imagination of solution ideas—and then applying design dimensions to shift and stretch ideas to guide the development of a solution.
The focus of the phase is on designing an implementation plan that informs the process for testing and learning from the prototype to ensure the solution enables access, participation and achievement.
The final phase supports the team in completing the research, capturing the learnings, and codifying the solution to enable the outcomes and impact of the work to be shared—and for others to utilize the solution if scaling is a goal.
To engage in R&D, it is important for participants to prepare to embark on the journey with the creation of a “primer” that sets a foundation for the work together.
The focus of the phase is on setting the stage for trust and relationship building as an effective continual practice that supports teams in collaboration.
The focus of the phase is on facilitating exploration of the challenge through community-led research and, based on learnings, define the core challenge statement, its root causes, and the definition of progress outcomes.
The focus of the phase is on the imagination of solution ideas—and then applying design dimensions to shift and stretch ideas to guide the development of a solution.
The focus of the phase is on designing an implementation plan that informs the process for testing and learning from the prototype to ensure the solution enables access, participation and achievement.
The final phase supports the team in completing the research, capturing the learnings, and codifying the solution to enable the outcomes and impact of the work to be shared—and for others to utilize the solution if scaling is a goal.
What distinguishes the Inclusive Innovation model from other R&D models is that it results in solutions that have been researched and developed by co-experts—students, parents, community members—in partnership with developers, and researchers. Co-designing solutions ensures they are contextually and culturally relevant. Additionally, Inclusive Innovation solutions are designed for eventual scale. The phases provide a roadmap for mutual partnership, embedding an awareness of community context so that solutions produced through this process are effective and can be implemented in similar contexts.
Center for Inclusive Innovation