Collaborative Professionalism: When Teaching Together Means Learning for All (Corwin Impact Leadership Series)

In many countries, the preferred political strategy to raise standards in education is relentless competition: between students, teachers, schools and districts. On the whole, it isn't working. There is a better way. One that works: collaboration. Human beings are intensely social creatures and much of what we can and do achieve comes from our capacity for working together. In this illuminating and highly practical book, Andy Hargreaves and Michael T O'Connor show why and how collaboration can and should be the real driver of educational transformation, for our students, teachers, and schools alike. An important and timely work for anyone with a genuine interest in making the changes that matter in schools.

Collaborative Professionalism makes an impressive contribution to the development of teaching and improving schools by stressing the importance of investing in social capital in and between schools. Building on their rich experiences and vivid case studies from around the world, Andy Hargreaves and Michael O'Connor promote collaborative professionalism as the next big step in the global movement for educational improvement. This brilliantly written book is a must-read for teachers, leaders, policy-makers, and those who wish to become collaborative professionals.

I strongly recommend Collaborative Professionalism to education policy makers, school leaders, and teacher activists. It has helped me reflect on how to strengthen the teaching profession, at a time of unprecedented threat from technology, retention, and narrow accountability. The book combines a readable style, with tangible case studies and clear recommendations on what should be done now to foster a healthy future for the most important of professions - working in alliance, with trusted autonomy, and an agility to deal with a time of unprecedented change.

Hargreaves and O'Connor have written an extraordinary book explaining, deepening, and teaching us how to transform teaching and learning in schools. We learn how people collaborate in five different contexts and cultures across the globe. And we finally understand the important stages of building positive, trusting, thoughtful, and lasting collaborative professionalism with all its significant details.