A new era for teacher professionalism: emerging challenges and opportunities in a post-truth society

The ‘post-truth’ condition, characterised by the erosion of shared epistemic norms and the destabilisation of institutional trust, poses a profound challenge to the project of teacher professionalisation. While educational research has examined post-truth dynamics in relation to learning, students, and the curriculum, its specific impact on the teaching profession remains under-theorised. Drawing on the sociology of professions and critical scholarship on epistemic authority, this paper interrogates how post-truth dynamics disrupt the core tenets of teacher professionalism: specialised knowledge, public trust, and professional authority. It argues that the fragmentation of truth regimes does not merely threaten established professional boundaries but necessitates a fundamental reconfiguration of the teacher’s role. Rather than retrenching into traditional hierarchies, the paper proposes a reimagined professionalism grounded in epistemic-interpretive work and relational-civic engagement. This framework positions teachers not only as transmitters of authorised knowledge, but also as active navigators of contested epistemic landscapes. Finally, the paper sets a critical agenda for future research, calling upon the educational community to interrogate how post-truth developments continue to shape and interact with teacher professionalism.