This submission highlights barriers and facilitators towards a diversification of the Austrian teaching force. The early onset of segregation remains one of the main characteristics of the Austrian school system (Buchner & Petrik 2023, Herzog-Punzenberger & Schnell 2019). This manifests itself in disadvantages of specific groups such as people with disabilities and so called migration background to education in general and higher education specifically. Further barriers to entering the teaching force remain in place for the same groups: Entrance tests to teacher colleges for primary school teacher training remain focused on physical fitness (e.g. having to be able to do jump ropes and sing; e.g. https://kphvie.ac.at/studieren/studieninteressierte/aufnahmeverfahren.html) and German language, the latter also holds true for university-led training for secondary teacher training. The legal basis for people with disabilities’ access to the teaching force was created in 2006 (BMSG 2006) only and internationally educated teachers remain second class professionals (Proyer et al. 2022), limited in their access to entering the teaching force as such but also remaining excluded or being othered once in the system. So while there is an ever-growing (contested) discourse on whether increasing diversity in classrooms across Europe should be met by a more diverse teaching force (Massumi 2014) and how this could help amend educational inequalities, Austria remains busy retaining traditional order. These tendencies of limiting access to education are opposed to current strategies of the Austrian government to counteract ongoing teacher shortage with lateral entrants. The initiative “Klasse Job!” (https://klassejob.at/) aims at creating a narrative of teaching being an easy-going, more valuable cause than working in a stressful environment of the private sector. With a few modules of introduction into basic education, these “teachers'' usually access the teaching force at the higher end of the salary spectrum. This presentation aims to explore the many ways to become a teacher if meeting specific criteria and unravel the one-way-street if not. Different fragments (legal documents, access criteria etc.) will be mapped out and interpretative narratives will be offered.

BMSG (2006): Bundes-Behindertengleichstellungs-Begleitgesetz. https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/eli/bgbl/I/2006/90/20060623 Buchner, T., & Petrik, F. (2023). Evaluating education policies through a spatial lens: Uncovering the ability-space-regimes of Austrian new middle schools. In Space, Education, and Inclusion (pp. 38-56). Routledge. Herzog-Punzenberger, B., & Schnell, P. (2019). Austria: equity research between family background, educational system and language policies. The Palgrave handbook of race and ethnic inequalities in education, 105-158. Massumi, M. (2014). Diversität in der Lehrerinnen-und Lehrerbildung–zur Bedeutung von Lehrkräften mit Migrationshintergrund. HiBiFo–Haushalt in Bildung und Forschung, 3(1), 17-18. Proyer, M., Pellech, C., Obermayr, T., Kremsner, G., & Schmölz, A. (2022). ‘First and foremost, we are teachers, not refugees’: Requalification measures for internationally trained teachers affected by forced migration. European Educational Research Journal, 21(2), 278-292.