Origins and Goals
The Teacher Partnership rests on a few core beliefs. Part of this core belief system resists the logic of schools that tries to put people into some sort of knowledge hierarchy (teacher/student, coach/teacher) and then have the "more knowledgeable" teach the "less knowledgeable." Maybe more importantly, we fundamentally believe that teachers will learn most when they collaborate and engage in cognitively challenging work. Sound familiar? We are trying to operate by the same learning theory that drives our interactions with students. Furthermore, we believe that there needs to be a structure built into the everyday work of teachers that allows this collaboration to take place. I think the general sentiment is captured well by a passage from this paper:
And here is how we have written the goals of the Teacher Partnership for use in our district: