Just as student centered, collaborative classrooms give students the power to direct their own learning, so too a collaborative, partnership model for the writing staff leads to empowerment and professionalism. At Western Illinois University, involving temporary instructors in the process of curriculum development not only served to boost their participation in professional activities, but also increased their political involvement to the point where the provost of the university was considering them for tenured positions. The instructors contributed to the project by brainstorming; suggesting readings, exercises and paper topics; sharing examples of student writing; reading drafts of chapters; proposing changes; trying out material in classes; writing sections of the text; and contributing artwork. Participating in the struggle of creation, and working together on pedagogical problems and the application of theory Increased the instructors' interest in: (1) attending professional conferences; (2) subscribing to journals; (3) experimenting with collaborative learning and portfolio grading; (4) writing "Working Papers" based on research or classroom experiments; and (5) experimenting with methods of teaching writing with a computer. This professional activity, in turn, had the effect of increasing their political involvement through the "Instructor's Caucus," a group formed to work on issues of status, application of a contract, and other job issues. (PRA)