Globalizing Innovation in Education

While reading an article for my PME class, I was struck by an interesting part. The author of the article was lamenting the fact that even though his country comes up with lots of great innovations in the educational field, it does a really poor job of implementation. The amount of resources poured into innovation has not had the desired effect on the domestic student body. However, the author is fascinated by the fact that other nations have been able to grab onto the innovations and use them to revolutionize their own educational systems. Is it because the ideas are homegrown that they do not receive due consideration? I see that quite often here in Canada. We regularly look to the United States for ideas about innovation. We read authors, bring in speakers across the border to help us delve into innovative techniques, and even pay for programs developed in the United States. But…. when we look at international rankings and standards we perform ahead of the Americans on many measures. It seems counter-intuitive to look to a lower ranked nation for our ideas on innovation. Or is it? If we can take another nations innovation and make it work in our context then what does it matter if the host nation has failed in implementation. Globalization of innovation then may also mean that the relationship can be reciprocal and perhaps some of our less accepted innovations in Canada can be a bolt of lightening in another nation.