Appraising the 1966 ILO-UNESCO recommendation: a moderated discussion, with Beatrice Avalos, Martin Henry, Susan Robertson, Iwan Syahril, Carlos Vargas and Matthew Thomas

This ‘moderated discussion’ comprises two rounds of written commentaries in which five contributors offered appraisals of the 1966 ILO-UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers and its impact. The contributors – reflecting professional, disciplinary, and geographic diversity–were invited to look back on the significance of the 1966 document and consider its influence on policy and practice. After each had responded to questions about the Recommendations’s significance and its impact in the intervening six decades, contributors were asked to comment on their colleagues’ responses. Their discussion noted the importance of the 1966 document in giving prominence to issues related to teachers and their profession, but also pointed to the difficulty of producing change on the ground and the unresolved challenges of making the Recommendatios’ principles real. Writers saw a need for a philosophical and moral compass to orient policy regarding teachers, as well as a broad public discussion about how we frame, view, and support them.