Global governance and the status of teachers as a profession: a special section appraising the 1966 ILO-UNESCO Recommendation

This article introduces a Special Section prompted by the 60 years anniversary of the ILO-UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, an early milestone in global teacher policy. The entry point of the Special Section is that the 1966 Recommendation constitutes an emblematic case through which key developments in the global governing of teachers and the status of the teaching profession since the mid-twentieth century might be interrogated and reflected upon. Comprising six articles in a variety of formats, the Special Section has the dual objective to analyse and discuss, on the one hand, the evolution of global teacher policy over the past 60 years, and, on the other, to critically interrogate why many of the issues confronting the teaching profession remain so persistent. By way of introducing the Special Section, this article discusses the imbrications between the evolving status of the profession and the global governance of teachers, with reference to existing research and the contributions to the Special Section.