This research arose from our involvements in adults and community education, adult literacy, youth issues, and in researching the new movement in Australia for the inclusion of "generic skills" in education and training curriculum. We recruited twenty-two practitioners in Adult and Community Education (ACE) in a participatory action research approach to assist us in exploring how "generic skills and attributes" are fostered in the context of adult and community education and to theorise pedagogies of ACE in the light of the changed demographic of those who access ACE programs (especially disaffected young people and older unemployed men). A "Framework for ACE Pedagogy" was one outcome of the research. In this paper we describe the five "elements" which we found to constitute "The Teacher" in ACE. The elements include: personal engagement with learners; self-reflection on one's teaching and one's own learning journey; improvisation and risk-taking; awareness of relations of power; and having patience and trust in the learning process.