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It’s being endorsed by education experts as a way to empower teachers and build leadership among their ranks, but how to make teacher collaboration a reality was the challenge at this year’s international teaching summit.

Teacher collaboration: progressive and creative, but what does it really mean and how can education systems make it work?

At last week’s 5th International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) in Banff, Alberta teacher collaboration became a twitter trend as the hottest topic on the agenda. The broad consensus is that teacher collaboration is a good thing, a means to empowering the teaching profession and creating teacher leaders.

What we mean when we say teacher collaboration

Teacher collaboration is far more than just a concept; it is a way of working together. Rather than working in isolation, collaboration allows teachers to share knowledge, resources, and even encourages team teaching.

The latest OECD TALIS(Teaching and Learning International Survey) report clearly showed that when teachers collaborate and take on leadership roles they feel respected and have greater satisfaction in their work. In fact, TALIS 2013 shows that teachers who have a voice in school policy, also say the teaching job is valued by society.

One of the leading voices for greater teacher collaboration, Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who was also in Banff to share her extensive experience, recently penned the latest blog post for EI’s Crisis in Education website. Co-written with Stanford colleague Dion Burns, “ Professional Collaboration and Effective Teaching Environments” provides insight into what makes teacher collaboration a proven method for strengthening the teaching ranks and for improving the quality of students’ education. Read the blog post here.