There is a paradox at the heart of the education debate on building the best generation of teachers. Ministers criticise teachers for not raising standards. Yet their answer is to change the governance structures of school. Why not address the real challenge--how to raise the status and quality of teaching in this country? It matters far more what classroom you are in, than what school you are in. The research evidence shows that in-school diversity in teaching standards is greater than that between schools. There is fantastic practice happening up and down the country. The challenge is to spread this best practice, while giving teachers the freedom to innovate and inspire. In this article, the author discusses how to build teacher quality as a facilitator of social justice and identifies challenges that should be addressed in moving towards a more socially just education system. (Contains 4 notes.)