Exploring the capabilities of female high school students of colour, refugees and immigrants who aspire to become early childhood teachers

This qualitative study utilizes the capability approach to highlight the experiences of female high school students of colour, refugees, and immigrants in an early childhood pathway programme. The approach emphasises the complexity of factors that support or hinder four young women’s aspirations to become teachers. Arts-based and ethnographic data-gathering methods allowed these four aspiring teachers to share their perspectives through words and images. Key findings reveal that while these young women have strong capabilities and aspirations, personal, social, and environmental barriers impact their freedom to choose to become early childhood teachers. Our study illuminates how educational researchers can use the capability approach to identify the gaps between what an individual has the potential to achieve and what is attainable and, ultimately, to determine the provisions needed to make becoming an early childhood teacher a reality for young women from marginalised groups.