Co‑constructing Visions for the Future of Teaching

13. The future of the teaching Profession – a perspective from the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD

Abstract

In this chapter, Larry Flanagan, Martin Henry, and Sarah Jameson, from the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, explore the evolving role of teachers and unions in shaping the future of teaching. They emphasise the importance of teacher professionalism and well-being and discuss the value of democratic schools for strong societies and the thoughtful integration of AI in education. Stronger support systems and collaborative leadership are needed to ensure that schools remain vibrant, society-shaping, and fun community centres – now and in the future.

An expert perspective by Larry Flanagan, Martin Henry and Sarah Jameson

In 1847, the Educational Institute of Scotland was formed. It claims to be the first national association for teachers. At its inaugural meeting it proclaimed its purpose to be the “promotion of sound learning” and the “welfare of teachers” – two guiding principles which are as relevant today as then, and will remain so, we would contend, as we speculate on the future of the teaching profession. Education unions across the globe continue to espouse these principles both collectively and within individual jurisdictions. Indeed, the interdependent relationship between the two ambitions has never been clearer.

Throughout the decades of change in the post Second World war period, teachers and their unions have been firmly committed to developing a new professionalism: in the United States the National Education Association, for example, was at the forefront of pushes towards a quality of teaching that was aspirational and all-encompassing as early as the 1950s; the South Koreans had picked this up by the 1970s; New Zealand unions aligned behind aspirational, not heroic approaches, during the “tomorrow’s schools” reforms in the 1980s and Educational International, since its inception, has been committed to a quality education approach. So how do we see things playing out 30 years from now?

Today, society is undergoing profound, dramatic, and rapid change. Economies are shifting, global alliances are changing, and technology is developing at breakneck speed - classic ingredients for moral panic and longing to look over the shoulder. As society is being radically transformed, should we expect teaching to match these social movements? Perhaps we should ask if the societal changes we are witnessing are making lives better? The divide between rich and poor has never been greater, democracy as a basic protection of human rights is under siege, and children need protection more than ever.

In truth, the nature of teaching has remained fairly constant (John Dewey's theory remains as relevant today as it was in the 1930s!). Some see this as a weakness to be addressed, but might it also contain some strengths?

While many of the meeting places of the twentieth century: the church, the army, the public house, have become of less importance to everyday lives, school remains a crucial social and educational hub, critical to setting children up for a productive life of living and learning.

The concept of “community”, however, is central to the definition of schools – whether that be the class community, the school community, or the school as the centre of wider community. And at the heart of all of this are human relationships.

Schools are where we nurture our children’s growth as humans. As we navigate the maelstrom of change, we should remain anchored to that fundamental truth and recognise that teachers are the critical factor in ensuring that this takes place.

How then do we equip our teachers to face the challenges of change?

Teacher well-being and student well-being

Firstly, let’s recognise the importance of well-being (Education International, 2024[1]).

We have known for many years that teacher and student well-being are intrinsically, we might say symbiotically, linked. The next 30 years should give ample opportunity for us to lift well-being in our schools, both of teachers and students. Trends data tells us that societies are becoming unhealthier, for the first time in human history, with life expectancy tracking down rather than up. A policy focus that finds practical ways to lift teacher and student well-being is long overdue, ensuring the development of healthy schools and healthy and peaceful environments for us all to work in.

Schools can foster a sense of wellness by developing whole school policies and practices that align with human values of care for self and others, respect for inclusion and diversity, and a commitment to active and supportive citizenship. Such schools are likely to grow in stature as hubs for their community, providing services that benefit students and parents and possibly the community more broadly. This will not happen, of course, without resourcing and support, both financially and in terms of the right expertise.

Schools should continue to be seen as places that build society and enable us all to socialise.

Teachers and intelligent professionalism

Teachers inhabit multiple roles: mentors, guides, and knowledge providers. To navigate the many rapids that come with these multiple roles, teachers must have a developed, indeed an intelligent professionalism (Thompson, 2021[2]). What might help teachers in this challenge?

Foremost is the issue of professional autonomy. Teacher agency and teacher empowerment are the hallmarks of education systems that value teachers. They are also benchmarks for job satisfaction within the profession. Salaries must be commensurate with other professions if we are to keep quality teachers in our schools, but raising the status of teachers by respecting their professional standing is equally as important.

If we wish to see today’s newly qualified teachers still in our schools in 30 years’ time, bringing with them those decades of experience, we will have to have valued their professional status at every step of their journey.

Professional development and union led continuous professional learning and development (CPLD)

In any system in the world, teachers are the single biggest resource available to deliver educational ambitions. Yet in too many countries, teachers languish at the bottom of a top-down pyramid of policy development and innovation, political control and direction, and externally imposed regulation.

Imagine, 30 years from now, systems where education is shaped and led by the professional expertise, knowledge and understanding of its practitioners. Where teacher learning communities thrive in delivering professional collaboration and professional learning – teachers talking to teachers about what does and does not work in the classroom, about interdisciplinary lessons which create opportunities for deep and meaningful learning on the part of students, about the needs of individual students.

All of this happens today of course but is rarely embedded in systemic approaches. A persistent gap exists between the rhetoric of strong policy ambitions and the realities experienced at school level. Why? If only one answer is allowed to what is a complex issue, it would be the failure to engage the profession as co-creators of innovation. Marry this to excessive workload pressure and we have an impasse.

So, if we wish to see ourselves in a better place in 30 years, let’s address the challenge directly.

Education unions should be viewed as strong allies in this area. The “promotion of sound learning”, as cited in the introduction to this article, captures the deep interest and commitment of teacher unions in pedagogical and policy practice. Indeed, many very successfully run CPLD for their own members, either in partnerships with other agencies or simply as a benefit for their own members.

Teachers trust teachers!

Governments and employers need to see Education Unions as partners in a social dialogue that goes well beyond wages and conditions and gets to the heart of building progressive education systems. The evidence is already there that high performing education systems have strong professional associations which work in conjunction with other agencies to deliver quality education. To create stronger educations systems 30 years from now, we need to amplify such relevant truths from our current practice.

Teachers as leaders

The best systems enroll teachers as leaders, not just of schools, but of policies and thought streams related to education. This requires time for professional collaboration.

The Global Education Monitoring (GEM) leadership report (UNESCO, 2024[3]) makes clear the role that teacher unions take in providing system and political leadership in education, yet with only 20% of education ministers being women in a highly feminised profession, and none coming from an education background, we can see why decisions about teachers are often separated from reality.

The OECD has made clear in reports such as Supporting Teacher Professionalism (OECD, 2016[4]) that teacher collaboration is central to solving the problems teachers face. Knowledge, autonomy and peer networks have been consolidated around collaboration by the recent OECD work on new professionalism.

In the future, teachers’ pedagogical choices will be driven by new resources and new possibilities, but still teachers will only be able to make full use of these possibilities with the time and the space to teach.

The democratic school

As the Education International (EI) briefing for the 2025 International Summit of the Teaching Profession (ISTP) points out, child centred education systems require democratic schools - establishments where teachers can carve out spaces for students to participate in the things that affect them and where schools and society carve out places for teachers to influence the curriculum they teach and the policies that affect them (Education International, 2025[5]).

Democratic schools should model the values we wish to see children engage with. They require distributive leadership models which hold teachers’ and students’ voices in high regard and provide real opportunities for participation in decision making.

As the world becomes more shaped by virtual communities that spread lies and mendacity, the school becomes an even more important citadel of truth and hope.

Teachers will play a crucial role in giving students the resources and skills to become critical and creative thinkers who can tell a fact from a deep fake, or a learning opportunity from a cynical pitch to take your money. The world is already navigating this terrain, but the speed of change is fast.

Teachers will need a democratic professionalism to enable them to build and maintain peer networks with their colleagues both within their locality and across virtual communities of like-minded colleagues so they can stay ahead of the pedagogical challenges that EdTech, curriculum change, and assessment demands will continue to throw at them.

These pedagogical skills will need to be built from a foundational experience in Initial Teacher Education that equips teachers with the learning to learn skills to be able to continue to adapt to societal and knowledge-based changes. As subjects and project-based approaches and real-world scenarios continue to influence both the physical construction of schools and the construction of learning opportunities, teachers’ ability to check in with colleagues around their material conditions (pay and contractual arrangements that shape the day to day), as well as the professional issues that shape their lives, will retain teacher unions in a prominent role.

AI and teaching

Just as teachers are building their democratic professionalism, the introduction of AI into education is presenting further opportunities and challenges. AI, as with all EdTech, has the potential to help teachers, but also to act as a distraction or even a barrier. AI comes almost exclusively from the private sector with its driving mission of making profit from education.

It is, however, only a tool. Electronic whiteboards, another tool, lead to increased access to information, but not necessarily better learning.

Better learning comes with better pedagogy, and with pedagogy aligned to the tools available. The challenge is twofold – to envisage what learning children require to live in an AI-conditioned world and to incorporate the use of AI tools into new pedagogical approaches to improve learning outcomes.

This first challenge is perhaps the most difficult to envisage. AI is undoubtedly changing the world we live in – automating some jobs, transforming how we access knowledge (if not wisdom), creating new dynamics in communications – and it is perhaps the work of science fiction to imagine where we might be in 30 years, given the exponential pace of change. Education is a small subset of the potential transformative dynamic of AI in our societies. Within our sector, which is about nurturing the growth of children into inquisitive, involved and informed adults, the key dynamic must remain interpersonal relationships grounded in a strong sense of values.

The latter challenge requires bespoke Professional Learning and Development (PLD), preferably designed by and for teachers (for example by unions) and focused on exploring learning opportunities rather than selling a product.

AI is already deployed in classrooms. Any tool which might reduce workload will be seized upon by teachers in their practice: if AI can assist with differentiating resources to support individual learning – teachers will use it; if it helps overcome language barriers it will be deployed; if it removes routine administration – hallelujah!

But despite its presence in many classrooms, systemic approaches are few and far between, especially those which have been co-created with practitioners who have been supported in their own professional development and understanding. Teachers need to know what they can ask AI to do, what they can rely on AI to do and what is both questionable and unhelpful. They also need to continue the joy and social engagement of cooperative and creative learning. If AI helps provide more space for art and drama teaching all the better. If, however, it crowds out classrooms with administrative and dead-end individual programmes of ‘fill in the box’ approaches, teachers will resist such unhelpful technological developments.

Again, teachers need the thinking and reflection space to make sound pedagogical decisions on the use of a range of tools of which AI can only be one.

Strong teachers, strong unions, strong schools

Schools are places of connection, of identity formation, and the creation of foundational lifelong stories. The schools of the future can be places of warmth, relational support and engagement with knowledge that will develop the learning habits and skills that should go seamlessly from the cradle to the grave.

Teachers, along with families, are the most significant people in the lives of students helping them navigate this learning conundrum. For teachers to thrive they must also be nurtured and supported in their teacher communities, by their colleagues, in their profession and by their professional associations. Teachers will continue to develop their identities and their careers around meaningful learning opportunities.

The state has a responsibility, also, to facilitate this happening, by engaging in genuine social dialogue which provides the space for unions to operate and negotiate good contracts and decent working conditions, and by providing sustainable schools that are embedded in their communities.

Education continues to be the best chance we, society, have to build a better future.

Conclusion

Much serious science fiction is dystopian in nature but in 1951 Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about two children, centuries in the future, Tommy and Margie, who had “found a real book!” Through exploring the book, they become aware of how school used to be, with children going to a real building and meeting with a human teacher. It concludes with Margie thinking about how the kids must have loved school in the old days, and about “the fun they had”.

Wouldn’t it be good if in 30 years, our students loved school and had fun there!

References

[5] Education International (2025), Quality Education: The Key to Prosperity and Well-being, https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/29557:quality-education-the-key-to-prosperity-and-well-being (accessed on 4 May 2026).

[1] Education International (2024), Teacher Well-being: A Global Understanding, https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/28804:teacher-well-being-a-global-understanding (accessed on 4 May 2026).

[4] OECD (2016), Supporting Teacher Professionalism: Insights from TALIS 2013, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264248601-en.

[2] Thompson, G. (2021), The Global Report on the Status of Teachers, https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/25403:the-global-report-on-the-status-of-teachers-2021 (accessed on 30 April 2026).

[3] UNESCO (2024), Global Education Monitoring Report, 2024/5, Leadership in education: Lead for learning, GEM Report UNESCO, https://doi.org/10.54676/eflh5184.