Deferred, denied, and dying dreams’: the experiences of minoritized ethnic prospective pre-service teacher candidates in Ireland.

Notwithstanding efforts to increase higher education participation in Ireland, there remains inadequate representation from groups such as lower socio-economic, minority ethnic and individuals with a disability (HEA, 2016). This is particularly the case for primary initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland, where despite the diversification of teaching emerging as somewhat of a policy priority in recent years (DE, 2018; 2023), student teachers remain overwhelming white, female, settled, middle-class and Catholic (Keane & Heinz, 2016). Students from racialised groups face a myriad of cultural complexities, institutional limitations, and economic constraints to becoming a primary teacher. These barriers span the continuum of access and admissions, post-entry to ITE and transition to teaching. This research study, situated within a framework of critical participatory action research, explores the narratives, motivations, and experiences of 16 minoritized ethnic young people interested in pursuing a career in primary teaching in Ireland. Data were collected through an asynchronous multi-phased qualitative research design, utilising the visual methodology of PhotoVoice as a baseline and then followed with in-depth semistructured interviews and focus groups to further explore the lived experience of the sample. The conceptual framework for this study is interdisciplinary in nature, and draws upon sociological understandings of critical race theory, the philosophical concept of epistemic injustice, and components of communion from psychology, to illuminate storied understandings of why more minoritized ethnic young people in Ireland are not considering primary teaching as a career. Findings from this study challenge many misconceptions and prevailing wisdoms as to why there is not greater diversity in the teaching profession in Ireland. A range of counterstories are presented which mitigate the cultural de-valuation of participants and give voice to their untold stories about injustices surrounding unequal access to, and engagement with teacher education in Ireland. This research contributes to educational discourse by documenting the narratives and experiences of prospective minoritized ethnic candidates to ITE in a meaningful and authentic way and offers a range of responses for teacher educators and policymakers to consider in the current debate about diversifying the teaching profession in Ireland.