Teachers at the Centre: Closing the Teacher AI Gap through Professional Learning, Time and Agency

Students' use of generative AI is close to universal, but teachers' use is partial, cautious and largely unsupported. In the OECD's 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey, about 41% of lower secondary teach‐ ers reported using AI in their teaching, three in four non-users said they lacked the knowledge and skills to do so, and only about 38% had any AI- related professional learning in the previous year. Teachers are also sceptical that general-purpose AI improves learning, and most report little institutional guidance. This article argues that the teacher AI gap is the main bottleneck for every other ambition schools hold for AI, because only teachers can teach students to judge what AI produces. Drawing on a practitioner newsletter series written for school leaders in 2026, read alongside survey data, trial evidence on teacher workload and research on effective professional development, it examines the size and causes of the gap, what AI can realistically offer teachers, and what kind of profes‐ sional learning closes the gap. It argues that time saved by AI should be reinvested in the relational work only teachers can do, that professional learning for AI should follow what research already shows about effective teacher development, and that teacher agency, including the professional right to decide not to use AI, should be treated as a competence rather than a form of resistance. It proposes a three-stage capability pathway aligned with UNESCO's AI competency framework for teachers.