Schools are increasingly responsible for their own future. Therefore, it is fruitful to examine these organizations' potential for innovation and their capacity to realize large-scale innovations in particular. With this goal in mind, a strategy for the study of the innovative capacity of schools was developed. In a previous article for this journal, a preliminary study of the innovative capacity of secondary schools was reported. The results of this research were then used to create a conceptual model of the innovative capacity of schools. In the present study, the innovative capacity of primary schools in The Netherlands was examined. The purpose of the present study was to validate the model developed in the previous study and go one step further by examining the possible relation between the innovative capacity of schools and intensity of concern among the teachers and school leaders. A number of high-innovation and low-innovation primary schools were selected for study. A questionnaire was administered and two interviews were undertaken with the teachers, internal supporters, and school leaders in these primary schools (N=64). The results of the questionnaire and the interviews provide a better understanding of the innovative capacity of schools.
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Geijsel et al. (1999) studied this question.