‘I've always known that I would become a teacher’: How White women narrate their choice to teach, and what this means for teacher recruitment

Teacher shortages are not only severe and long term, but are strongly patterned by social inequities. In many Western countries the teaching workforce is dominated by White women, yet there is a lack of consideration as to why these patterns persist. This paper presents the first longitudinal exploration of young people's trajectories into teaching. It uses data from 31 interviews to examine the educational experiences and career aspirations of three young White women over 11 years: from primary school, through secondary school, further and higher education, and into initial teacher education. Analysing these data with an intersectional identity lens reveals how, despite each participant encountering significant obstacles on their pathway into teaching, once they were in teacher education all three participants narrated teaching as their ‘vocation’. An exploration of why these White women implied that they were ‘meant’ to teach is presented, along with consideration of how the discourse that teaching is a vocation may discourage those who do not feel that it applies to them. The paper ends with evidence-informed recommendations for those working to improve teacher recruitment in research and policy.