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In this episode, we’re joined by Dame Alison Peacock, Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching and one of the UK’s leading voices on teacher expertise, professional trust and the future of teaching.
Across her career as a teacher, headteacher, researcher and system leader, Alison has consistently argued that teaching is not simply a job of delivery or compliance, but a deeply skilled, intellectually demanding profession. From her work on Learning Without Limits to her leadership of the Chartered College, she has spent years championing teachers as experts and challenging the systems, assumptions and accountability pressures that can stop the profession from being treated that way.
In this conversation, Alison reflects on her career journey so far and why she believes teaching must be recognised as an expert profession if we want schools to thrive. She shares what still needs to change for teachers to feel genuinely respected and trusted, why professional growth and intellectual stimulation matter so much for retention, and what society still misunderstands about the complexity of great teaching.
We also explore what teacher voice should look like in policymaking, how accountability pressures can narrow both professional autonomy and children’s opportunities, and why inclusive teaching and high expectations should sit at the heart of an ambitious school system. Along the way, Alison discusses SEND, evidence-informed practice, AI, and what gives her hope for the next generation entering the profession.
We explore:
- Alison’s career journey so far, from classroom teacher to Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching
- Why she believes teaching must be treated as an expert profession and what people outside education still misunderstand about the job
- What practical changes would genuinely make teachers feel more respected, professionally trusted and valued
- Why teacher retention is about more than pay and workload and how professional growth, agency and intellectual stimulation all shape whether teachers stay
- What teachers might change first if they had more influence over education policy
- How accountability culture and performance pressures can constrain teachers and narrow what education becomes
- Why Alison believes schools need the space to prioritise both academic achievement and children’s wider flourishing
- What genuinely inclusive teaching looks like in practice, and why SEND and inclusion have become such difficult policy issues
- The core ideas behind Learning Without Limits and why Alison has spent so much of her career challenging fixed ability labels
- How schools can maintain high expectations without narrowing success to a single definition
- What role evidence-informed practice should play in everyday teaching and how to stop it becoming another education buzzword
- Why Alison believes AI should support teaching, not diminish the uniquely human parts of it
- What gives her optimism about the future of teaching and the next generation entering the profession
This is a thoughtful and timely conversation for trust leaders, school leaders and teachers interested in teacher professionalism, retention, evidence-informed practice and what it will take to build a school system that genuinely values teaching as an expert profession.
LINKS
- Teacher Agency: https://chartered.college/research-and-policy/policy-and-advocacy/teacher-agency-working-group/
- Chartered Status: https://my.chartered.college/store/
- Safe and Effective AI in Education: https://chartered.college/safe-and-effective-use-of-ai-in-education/
- Early Years: https://my.chartered.college/early-childhood-hub/
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Connect with Dame Alison on LinkedIn.
All views expressed in this episode are the guest’s own. Any mention of commercial providers, resources or products is on the guest’s recommendation and should not be considered an endorsement by The Key.
