Both Germany and Australia are countries shaped by significant immigration histories, with culturally and linguistically diverse populations playing a central role in their social and educational landscapes. Despite this, research on minority teachers remains sparse in both contexts, even as education policies in each country emphasise diversity and inclusion. Teachers from minority or migrant backgrounds are often positioned as key contributors to addressing educational inequities, bridging cultural divides, and fostering inclusive practices in schools. However, these expectations risk ethnicising and deprofessionalising their roles, underpinned by naive assumptions about them as a homogeneous group, both in the German context (Rosen & Jacob, 2023) and in the Australian context (Santoro, 2014). Recent literature reviews focusing on minority preservice teachers indicate that they face structural and institutional barriers in teacher education (Yip & Xu, 2024) and that they exhibit ambivalence towards multilingual practices in schools both in Germany (Rosen & Lengyel, 2023) and in Australia (Moloney & Giles 2015). Building on this, this paper examines how previous life and school experiences, as well as experiences gained in the practicum component of initial teacher education, impact pre-service teachers' views on multilingual practices in classrooms. This research question is explored through two in-depth interview studies, one conducted in Germany with minority pre-service teachers who were born, raised and educated in Germany, and the other carried out in Australia with migrant pre-service teachers, who were born and raised overseas and are now training to teach languages in Australia (Ciabatti, 2023). By analysing their perspectives in an international comparative manner and through the concepts of teachers' professional identity (Beijaard et al., 2004) and personal and practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1985), this contribution aims to highlight both the potential of plurilingual minority and migrant teachers to combat linguistic racism and foster inclusion and the systemic constraints that challenge their agency in transforming educational practices.

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