Diversifying the Teaching Profession: Dimensions, Dilemmas and Directions for the Future

This is a powerful, provocative and enlightening book about diversifying the teaching profession, a topic that is of great interest in many places around the world. Given the relatively long history of interest in this topic and the fact that failure to diversify the teacher workforce continues to be a problem internationally, Diversifying the Teaching Profession will undoubtedly be enthusiastically received. The book’s three editors, Elaine Keane (University of Galway), Manuela Heinz (University of Galway) and Rory Mc Daid (Marino Institute of Education, Dublin), have been leaders in research, policy and practice related to diversifying the teaching profession in Ireland for more than a decade. Their book will stand out among others related to this topic for many reasons, two of which are particularly noteworthy. First, as the editors point out explicitly and the chapters in the book collectively demonstrate, the book is based on an unusually broad and rich definition of teacher diversity as a multi-dimensional concept. Each of its dimensions is connected to its own literature and scholarly traditions, which makes the book especially ambitious and complex. Second, the book combines a close look at government-funded efforts to diversify the teaching profession in Ireland with a deep and broad analysis that not only acknowledges that Ireland is somewhat of an outlier internationally in terms of how teacher diversity has been defined, but also situates these efforts within larger aspects of the international problem of teacher diversification.