Teachers as Professionals

I picked up a copy of Clay Shirky's book "Here Comes Everybody" from the library this weekend.
During the past year I have been running across references and excerpts from this book in articles and blogs. I saw it mentioned again in the most recent copy of Educational Leadership.

I'm only a little way into the book, but there was one thing that I had to throw out there for contemplation. On page 58 Shirky paraphrases a definition of professional UCLA sociologist James Q. Wilson presented in his book Bureaucracy. Shirky's paraphrase is: "a professional learns things in a way that differentiates her from most of the populace, and she pays as much or more attention to the judgment of her peers as to the judgment of her customers when figuring out how to do her job."

Journalists value the Pulitzer Prize, and actors the Oscar and Screen Actor's Guild awards because they are selected by their peers. The opinions of their peers are greatly valued. How do we create this same culture of professionalism among teachers? What would need to change about how teachers interact with each other to create mutual respect and admiration for each other's craft?