The focus of the 2025 ISATT conference – the pursuit of equitable quality teaching – is undeniably important. Nations and states across the globe are consumed by attempts to ensure that their young people are given equitable access to high quality education. Yet, such equitable quality education can only happen if there are sufficient high-quality teachers, capable of providing equitable quality learning for young people. So, while we (rightly) focus on the need for quality equitable teaching for young people, we must also foreground the importance of equitable quality professional learning for teachers. This talk will focus on the challenges to that aspiration and the need to problematise the ways in which we understand and support teacher professional learning. Specifically, it will call for a shift in the narrative, challenging the idea that professional learning for teachers is first and foremost a lever for improving student outcomes, instead arguing that repositioning teachers at the centre of their own professional learning might allow for more transformative possibilities.