Hello everyone! The McGill Journal of Education has recently published a special issue titled “Teacher Education in the Neoliberal and Neoconservative North.” I contributed an article to this issue.

My article is titled “She said that I was a pattern-breaker”. In this article I explore the career aspirations and educational experiences of Danish-born students of a transnational background who are nearing completion of their studies to become professional teachers in compulsory schools in Denmark. The theoretical framework of the study is grounded in the tenets of critical multiculturalism and transnationalism. The guiding research questions are as follows:

• What are the career aspirations of Danish-born student teachers of a transnational background?
• How do childhood memories and previous schooling experiences influence their career aspirations?
• What challenges do these students encounter during their teacher education journey and the on-site schoolteacher training?
• How do they navigate and overcome these challenges?

The findings obtained from individual qualitative interviews with seven students indicate their overall satisfaction with teacher educators and the learning environments within their campuses. However, the participants also reported experiencing varying degrees of unfair treatment, labelling, and prejudice. Despite having encountered different forms of discrimination, the participants have ambitious career aspirations, often manifested in their determination to challenge social injustice and bring positive change to the compulsory education system.

The paper is published open access.

Benediktsson, A. I. (2026). “She said that I was a pattern-breaker”: Career aspirations and challenges for students of a transnational background in teacher education in Denmark. McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l’éducation de McGill, 60(1), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.26443/mje/rsem.v60i1.10306