Ensuring that teachers' professionalism is appropriately recognised and rewarded is a challenge, especially at a time when that professional status itself is often under threat. The fifth Commonwealth Teachers' Research Symposium brought together teachers, researchers and education policy-makers to share experiences from developed and developing countries both within and outside the Commonwealth. This event was a further contribution to ensuring that teachers with professional qualifications of good standard are able to move freely between countries of the Commonwealth and the wider world, having those qualifications and skills recognised and valued.