Imaginer des scénarios d'innovation dans l'enseignement supérieur latino-américain

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify some possible scenarios of innovation in the Latin American higher education (HE) space; that is, under what circumstances novelties may be introduced in higher education organizations, their functions, processes, and products, or in the policies aimed at this sector, their formulation, implementation, and impacts. For this purpose, specialized literature is referenced and reviewed, as well as proposals from the media, academia, and government. Innovation scenarios are approached from four dimensions. First, its nature, regularity, and intensity, distinguishing between incremental and disruptive innovations. Second, from the structural differentiation between systems and institutions. Third, it considers the two classic functions of HE, i.e., teaching and research. Fourth, from the national (local) and global dimensions. Considering the current trends in HE, our thesis is based on the fact that disruptive innovations can be anticipated in the global dimension and incremental innovations in the national/local Latin American dimension. While in the center we can expect disruptive, paradigm-shifting innovation, in the periphery, on the contrary, we can only anticipate incremental innovations, that is, gradual, of cumulative continuity, partial improvements and, above all, varied adjustments to the transformations triggered by the center and their impacts on the periphery. The essay introduces in the first section the concept of innovation applied to HE; it then builds the theoretical and methodological basis of the analysis, then offers the results of the analysis and finally discusses them in relation to the thesis argued.