The ASTI is said to be in a period of renewal following the turmoil of recent years, something which was borne out by this week's conference, writes John Downes.
This year's conference in Killarney heralded a renewed focus on the issues that really matter to teachers. As in any democratic organisation, the hecklers were still ever-present. But far from the high-profile disputes of the past, delegates took the opportunity to make their voices heard on matters of real concern to them.
The result? When emotive topics such as teacher pensions, school discipline and school inspections came up for discussion, the agenda quickly went out the window.
Many contributors had clearly been storing up their thoughts over the long winter months in schools around the country, ready to distil them into the three minutes allotted to them by conference steering committee.
Lo and behold, when their chance finally came, they were not going to miss it.
A few took their three minutes to deliver their speeches articulately.
Frequently, however, human nature dictated that they were slow to stick to the agreed time-frame.
"You always put more motions on the agenda than you need," is how one delegate described the approach. The logic is that if there is too much agreement, and motions are passed too quickly, there will be nothing left to talk about. There seemed little chance of that happening this week. While the more hardline elements of the ASTI had not gone away, the new spirit of reasoned, yet passionate debate - in the public sessions at least - did, by and large, hold sway.
Clearly ordinary teachers have more in common with each other than not, a fact borne out in the hotel bar most evenings. Yet this year's conference will perhaps best be remembered for some of the questions it has raised for the future such as persuading young teachers that the pensions issue should concern them.