Abstract:

In the past fifty years, the outcries of education crisis have never ended. Many pundits attribute the causes of the crisis to the mismatch between what society needs and what schools can offer. This paper draws on the theory of ecology of education and the pedagogy core concept of OECD to analyze ten influential cases of collaborative innovation between schools and society at large both from China and abroad. It puts forward suggestions on building a dynamic, vibrant and sustainable education ecosystem. The major conclusions are as follows. First, there is the interaction between internal and external systems in the education system, which determines that schools and society are not antagonistic, but need to cooperate with each other. Second, schools around the world have developed various forms of cooperation mechanisms with other education institutions in order to expand learning space for learners, promote educational equity and improve educational quality. Third, “human capital investment balance sheet” should be applied to practice, and the beneficiaries of education and their employers have the responsibility to participate more in school education, so as to offset the public education resources they occupy, and realize the “shareholders’ equity” of education investment.

Key words: education crisis, education innovation, education and society, collaborative innovation, education ecosystem.