In a neoliberal era of education, there has been a shift of policy focus to performativity and evidence-based practice, coupled with neoconservative ideology of a more traditional knowledge-led curriculum. The resultant, extant education policy context has received criticism due to its teach to test culture, the concomitant narrowing of curriculum and the highly prescribed, scrutinised and 'authorised' pedagogic practices prevalent in schools. The paper draws on empirical qualitative data from three modern foreign languages (MFL) secondary school teachers in high poverty contexts in the North West of England. The study examines how these teachers describe their pedagogical practice within the confines of the current policy landscape and how they respond to curriculum and assessment requirements. The paper concludes that, despite the limiting effects of the prescriptive approaches in the current educational system, there are opportunities for teachers to promote unauthorised pedagogies in their classrooms that respond to their specific contexts. However, it acknowledges a shift in teachers' professional identity and questions the current discourses associated with teachers' professional knowledge. In response to this, I call for better recognition of the politicised and antidemocratic nature of current education policy and for us to equip teachers to become public intellectuals with the professional confidence to act for social change by reclaiming pedagogic discourses and practices that benefit pupils living in poverty.