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Diversifying Ireland's relatively homogeneous teaching population has been a policy concern for over a decade in the context of the rapid transformation of Irish society and schooling. This paper draws on the Access to Post-primary Teaching (APT) project, funded by the Higher Education Authority, which supports the participation of those from lower socio-economic groups in initial teacher education at one of the seven universities in the Republic of Ireland. The research component of the project involves an in-depth qualitative (interview-based) study examining APT participants' perspectives and experiences relating to their education to date and their engagement in the Professional Master of Education programme. Data are analysed using grounded theory techniques including open and focused coding and categorising. The focus in this paper arises from an initial analysis of round one interviews with the first group of APT participants. An important category generated connects participants' frequently negative school experiences (not feeling encouraged at school, generally and regarding future careers - including teaching) to their perspectives about reasons for a lack of diversity in the teaching profession, and to how their own (frequently social justice-based) motivation to become a teacher fits therein. This focus will guide a discussion about attracting, supporting and preparing a diverse student teacher population.
Introduction and Context
The lack of diversity in the teaching profession as an international phenomenon (Schleicher, 2014) has been of concern in Ireland since the early 2000s (cf. Department of Education and Science, 2002). Ireland's teaching population has remained homogeneous; being predominantly white, female and of majority-group social class and ethnic backgrounds (Keane and Heinz, 2015, 2016; Keane, Heinz, Eaton, 2017; Heinz and Keane, 2018). Such demographics stand in stark contrast to school populations which have increasingly diversified since the 1990s due to immigration and the impact of the 'Celtic Tiger' (Devine, 2011). Until recently, national widening participation (WP) policy focused solely on increasing access for certain under-represented groups to higher education (HE) in general (cf. HEA, 2004), in contrast to the international context which has, for some time, extended widening participation concerns to the postgraduate and employment spheres, with particular reference to WP in the professions (Macmillan, Tyler and Vignoles, 2015).
The most recent National Access Plan (2015-2019) (HEA, 2015), however, identified the need to support access...