Edward J. Dirkswager – författare

"What if teachers were owners, not employees?" Teacher-ownership is a revolutionary way to put excitement and meaning back into the teaching profession and to revitalize public education. This book demonstrates how being an owner rather than an employee can give teachers control of their professional activity, including full responsibility and accountability for creating and sustaining high performing learning communities. It presents examples of teacher-ownership in practice and provides practical models for those who would like to experience the professional satisfaction found in ownership. Like doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, teachers have the same opportunity to work for themselves through ownership of professional partnerships. In a professional partnership, the teachers are the leaders and decision-makers. They control their own work and their own relationships to students, including determining curriculum, setting the budget, choosing the level of technology available to students, determining their own salaries, selecting their colleagues, monitoring performance and hiring administrators to work for them, not vice versa.

Lately, our nation’s strategy for improving our schools is mostly limited to “getting tough” with teachers. Blaming teachers for poor outcomes, we spend almost all of our energy trying to control teachers’ behavior and school operations. But what if all of this is exactly the opposite of what is needed? What if teachers are the answer and not the problem? What if trusting teachers, and not controlling them, is the key to school success?Examining the experiences of teachers who are already trusted to call the shots, this book answers: What would teachers do if they had the autonomy not just to make classroom decisions, but to collectively—with their colleagues—make the decisions influencing whole school success? Decisions such as school curriculum, how to allocate the school budget, and whom to hire.Teachers with decision-making authority create the schools that many of us profess to want. They individualize learning. Their students are active (not passive) learners who gain academic and life skills. The teachers create school cultures that are the same as those in high-performing organizations. They accept accountability and innovate, and make efficient use of resources. These promising results suggest: it’s time to trust teachers.