The Challenges of Contemporary Educational Innovation through the Lens of the Sagadokseo System: Focusing on the SIR Conceptual Framework

This study aimed to structurally analyze the recurring problems of short-termism and failure of institutionalization in contemporary educational innovation by adopting the Joseon Dynasty’s Sagadokseo system as a historical comparative case and by developing and applying the SIR (Sustainability–Institutionalization–Relational/Self-directed) conceptual framework. Although various educational innovations—such as digital platforms and AI-based teaching and learning tools—have been rapidly introduced, many of them operate as short-term projects lasting one to three years and disappear with policy termination, failing to secure institutional sustainability. Using literature-based conceptual analysis and qualitative content analysis of studies on traditional educational systems and contemporary educational innovation, this study extracted and categorized the structural elements that enable the long-term continuity of educational systems. The findings indicate that the long-term continuation of the Sagadokseo system was grounded in the interdependent integration of three elements: Sustainability (S), Institutionalization (I), and Relational and Self-directed learning (R). Specifically, institution building premised on long-term operation and flexible reading periods ensured sustainability; the refinement of regulations such as the Gwonjang Samok and the Sagadokseo Gaegui, clarification of responsible agents, and institutionalization of dedicated learning spaces enabled institutional embeddedness; and self-directed reading plans and scholarly community activities fostered learner agency and learning momentum. This study reconceptualizes educational innovation not as a short-term experiment or an issue of individual programs but as a matter of institutional structural design, suggesting that sustainable educational innovation requires the integrated design of long-term temporal structures, institutional arrangements, and learner support. The SIR conceptual framework can serve as an interpretive tool for future diagnosis of educational systems, design of educational innovation, and analysis of educational policy.