ABSTRACT
Once it has been decided that an innovation is to be tried in a school, other early decisions which need to be taken concern the way in which the innovation (or the idea of the innovation) is to be introduced to the teachers who are to be involved with it and the way in which the innovation is to be developed and sustained. These decisions are likely to have profound effects on the extent to which the innovation is successfully implemented. A study of strategies will suggest the major approaches that might be taken. The term strategy is borrowed from the military field where it means the science and art of planning and directing operations against an enemy. A strategy for innovation, therefore, implies a planned and systematic attack on a problem, or as Miles (1964c) puts it, ‘a general set of policies underlying specific action steps (“tactics”) expected to be useful in achieving the durable installation of an innovation’ (p. 648).
