Teachers are uniquely situated to enact best practices for the direct benefit of student learning. However, teachers often lack opportunities to exercise agency, the capacity to “make an impact or exert power” (Gourd, 2015, p. 12). When teachers develop agency, they are better able to implement place-based, relevant lessons for their students. Developing agency was one of the primary goals of an international project we led to explore how to bridge the gap between the ways teachers in different cultures and countries teach STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In this global collaboration, American and Pakistani educators worked together to implement teacher-centered professional learning about how to design lessons and curriculum that are standards-based, contextualized, and engaging for their students. We created a cooperative