ABSTRACT
Teacher-powered schools combine any expectations for teacher's accountability with collective autonomy to make the decisions influencing school success. In these schools, teacher teams are able to make the dramatic changes in school that they determine are needed to improve student learning, increasing their passion for their job. Teacher-powered schools allow teachers to exercise collective professional autonomy defined as the balance and interaction between human's dual needs for interdependence and control. The school cultures created by teacher-powered school teams are characterized by a sense of common challenge and discovery, rather than a culture in which experts impart information. Teacher training institutions could support teacher's migration to managing whole schools with autonomy and accountability. Most teacher-powered schools studied report that their turnover is low. The outcomes reported by Farris-Berg, Dirkswager, and Junge indicate that teacher-powered schools are, in practice, the kind of arrangement Brandl had in mind.
