Rising international and national migration has led to new challenges within European classrooms. As ongoing challenges remain and students with a migration background persistently score persistently lower in academic testing and well-being surveys, teacher students need to be prepared to teach in, for, and about cultural diversity within their initial teacher education (ITE). Teacher educators (TEs) need to meet this needs, both through the design of ITE curricula but also through its implementation. Intercultural education in ITE can prepare student teachers for culturally diverse environments, e.g. to foster cultural awareness and understanding through knowledge of power-dynamics, promoting intercultural dialogue and inclusion (e.g., Deardorff, 2009; Rapanta & Travão, 2021). Research has shown that student teachers need to be able to employ practical skills, such as communication and relationship building skills (e.g., Deardorff, 2009; Romijn et al., 2020), as well as have knowledge, awareness and the reflectivity to be able to navigate culturally diverse environments successfully when entering teaching profession (e.g., Dervin & Hahl, 2014; Hachfeld et al., 2015; Metsäpelto et al., 2024). However, the understanding of such concepts can differ between TEs (e.g., Hahl & Löfström et al., 2016).This underlines the importance of investigating TE's perspectives of and approaches to the topic of cultural diversity in ITE. Nonetheless, their perceptions and approaches to this topic are often overlooked in research, with studies focusing on student teachers' experiences or the impact of interventions. We aim to fill this research gap in this study by answering the following research question: 

How do teacher educators perceive and approach the preparation of student teachers for culturally diverse classrooms? 

By investigating how TEs conceptualise and enact diversity-related teaching, we deepen our understanding of their positionalities within rapidly changing sociocultural and institutional contexts. Importantly, this research highlights that effective preparation of student teachers for cultural diversity cannot be understood as an individual pedagogic endeavour but as situated within institutional structures. As such, this study offers relevant insights for TEs, faculties, and policy makers seeking to develop legislation, curricula, and support structures.

Finland, which despite a rich multicultural history has only relatively recently seen international immigration on a larger scale, has long been lauded in Europe for it's education system. However, despite Finland maintaining good results in PISA, it also has the highest disparity in academic outcomes between students with and without an immigration background in Europe (e.g., Pulkkinen et al., 2024). This underlines the importance of preparing student teachers for cultural diversity, positioning our study in a fast-changing educational landscape requiring of TEs to adapt to new needs and situations.

This study employs reflective thematic analysis to investigate interview data from 20 TEs working in ITE programmes in Finland. We identified four overarching themes relating to the state and scope of student teachers’ preparation for cultural diversity, TEs’ preparedness to address these topics, and how discomfort can be used to challenge beliefs and initiate development. TEs expressed the need for more institutional support for professional development and peer-collaboration to navigate knowledge gaps and sociopolitical challenges. Furthermore, TEs highlighted the need for more practical teaching experiences in culturally diverse contexts in ITE.

As changing demographic and cultural contexts remain an European-wide phenomenon, our findings offer valuable insights into the often overlooked TE perspectives and approaches, as well as the challenges and opportunities when developing ITE to meet the needs of this new educational landscape. It offers insights and suggestions for TEs, faculties, and universities in Europe and beyond.

This is a qualitative study employing reflexive thematic analysis on data collected from 20 participants working as TEs at Finnish universities (September-October 2025). The semi-structured interviews were conducted in English using video conferencing systems. Data was later analysed using Atlas.ti software, following the suggestions of Braun and Clarke (2006;2024).

This study contributes to the international academic discourse on how student teachers can more effectively supported for increasingly diverse and complex teaching environments. While the need to prepare student teachers for culturally diverse teaching environments has become clear in recent years, TE have to facilitate this preparation through their teaching in ITE programmes. However, this task can become challenging when TEs themselves feel un(der)prepared to provide adequate teaching. Recognising that TEs are learners themselves and rely on varying knowledge of and confidence in the topic of intercultural education, the findings of this study underline that student teachers’ preparation for cultural diversity is not only a pedagogical challenge, but an institutional one. Without deliberate institutional structures that foster TEs’ professional development and opens meaningful spaces for collaboration, efforts to prepare student teachers for culturally diverse classrooms remain fragmented and dependent on the individual TE. Furthermore, efforts of including intercultural experiences and structured discussions show that TEs are reflective of current political challenges as well as the shortcomings of their respective ITE programmes. However, they are often limited in their efforts through legislation and institutional barriers. Addressing these constraints is therefore essential to ensure that both TEs and student teachers have the support they need to develop the knowledge and confidence required to teach for, in, and about culturally diverse contexts. (TE = Teacher educators; ITE = Initial teacher education)

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