Today, we dive into the world of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) to hear from current and former racialised migrant teachers about their experiences of teacher training and making their way into the Australian teaching workforce. Featuring teachers who have gone through ITE across the last three decades, we explore the aspirations and pathways leading teachers towards the profession and their experiences in university classrooms and during placement. This episode includes two segments that capture what interviewees learned as student teachers about anti-racism, multiculturalism and Indigenous education. Later in the show, we hear from teacher-turned-teacher educator Elizabeth* and Gomeroi education researcher Professor Nikki Moodie about some of the system pressures and policy priorities currently shaping ITE course delivery. These include Australia’s chronic teacher shortage and narrow definitions of quality education (literacy and numeracy test scores and behaviour management), which minimise the value of anti-racist and culturally responsive teaching and leadership

*Pseudonym