ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the policy origins and development of the Teacher Learning and Leadership (TLLP) in a collaboration between government, teacher unions, education leaders, and teachers. In an important way, TLLP provides a powerful alternative to much of professional development that brings in outside experts to change teachers, which has proven to be highly problematic, as it ignores the critical importance of the teacher knowledge of "insiders". In 2003, the Canadian province of Ontario had a school system that was downtrodden and bleak. For eight years the Conservative government had created policies that were uniformly opposed by the teachers and their unions. In April 2005, a Working Table on Teacher Development was established. Its purpose was to create collaboration between the Ministry, teachers' unions, professional associations, and other relevant provincial partners to design and develop new policies for teachers' professional development. Teachers are learning so that their students can benefit from their professional development projects.
