A hybrid activity system as educational innovation Katsuhiro Yamazumi Published online: 2 August 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract This article analyzes a hybrid after-school learning activity for children called ‘‘New School’’ (NS). NS is an inter-institutional, collaborative project based on a part- nership between a university and local elementary schools that also involves other social actors and institutions. Using a framework of third generation activity theory, the article illuminates emerging forms of learning in this hybrid activity that attempt to transform traditional school learning. NS seeks to create innovative networks of learning that will expand schooling activity by creating hybrid forms in collaboration with outside com- munities and organizations. The analysis of the NS intervention explores to what extent the different partners cross boundaries between their activity systems and their willingness to make school changes together as collaborative change agents. Preliminary findings indicate intense contradictions between the involved activity systems. Nevertheless, contradictions also energized collaborative efforts to transform traditional pedagogical practices. Keywords Expansive learning Á Hybrid activity system Á Networks of learning Á School innovation Á Third generation activity theory ‘‘New School’’ (NS) is a children’s after-school learning activity in which the following partners cooperate to create advanced networks of learning: a university, local elementary schools, families, experts, and community organizations outside the school. The collabo- rative efforts are supported by the Center for Human Activity Theory at Kansai University in Osaka (Yamazumi 2007, in press). In the NS project, these parties are involved in designing mixed grade, group, and project-based learning units. Elementary school chil- dren are engaged in fun, creative, and collaborative learning processes. NS activities include (Fig. 1): (a) project-based learning at the center; (b) rice planting; (c) cooking local vegetables in the school’s home economics room; (d) digital-storytelling at the center, all with support of university students. NS units develop agentive, critical, and creative K. Yamazumi (&) Center for Human Activity Theory, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan e-mail: kyamazumi@chat.kansai-u.ac.jp 123 J Educ Change (2008) 9:365–373 DOI 10.1007/s10833-008-9084-8