At a time of substantial change and ubiquitous access to information, educators struggle to change even the most basic aspects of their classroom practice.  This is especially true for those in challenging contexts where many continue to teach through the “mind numbing” practice of rote instruction.  As other sectors seem to adopt innovative practices and embrace change, teachers typically teach in the ways in which they themselves were taught.  As Dewey noted “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob our children of tomorrow.”

We acknowledge teachers in challenging contexts face even a more daunting task.We define challenging contexts as settings in which individuals, due to a variety of circumstances, conditions or environmental constraints, do not have access to one of more aspects that underpin a civil society.

We request funds to support an academic partnership through the development of Innovative Learning Centres (ILC).  The purpose of the ILC is to (1) imagine the future of education, (2) foster new forms of literacy critical for the knowledge age, (3) to leapfrog pedagogy in imaginative, appropriate and sustainable ways by harnessing both indigenous ways of knowing and linguistic and scientific literacy to develop learners’ multiple literacies, and (4) use locally developed scientific and mathematical content as a basis for developing early years multiliteracy competence. The ILC will bring academics, educators, and industry together to imagine and create innovative pedagogical practices, using appropriate technologies in a design based, research informed, studio based learning environment.  The ILC will help educators leapfrog existing paradigms constraining innovative practice.  Leapfrogging, in the context of sustainable development, is a term used to describe the accelerated development of an intervention by “leaping over” conventional approaches and/or technologies and moving directly to a more appropriate, and often more advanced one.  An often-cited example is found when regions skip over the installation of landline telephony and move directly to mobile phone connectivity, leapfrogging the lack of phone access by embracing the newer, more appropriate mobile phone solution.