Components that influence early career teachers’ practices as inclusive educators in general education settings: An international scoping review

Abstract This paper analyses the findings of a scoping review that sought to ascertain components that influence early career teachers’ practices as inclusive educators in general education settings. This represents a unique contribution to existing scholarship in that it explicitly identifies and defines 18 key components that influence early career teachers’ practices as inclusive educators. Providing a common metalanguage for these components—particularly when used in legislation and policy—is important to mitigate the overwhelming procedures for teachers and researchers who grapple with such processes, and identify their influence on their practice. The aim of this review was to identify, define, categorise and summarise the existing research from February 2011 to February 2023 that ascertains what components influence early career teachers’ practices as inclusive educators. Additionally, this scoping review proposes recommendations for future research also. The JBI Scoping Review Methodology was followed in this review, and 25 articles met the inclusion criteria. Qualitative content analysis was employed, identifying mentorship, support, time, and belief in inclusive education as the most widely discussed components. Our analysis suggests that future research should focus on early career teachers’ attitude, professional dialogue, and induction. The findings of this research have implications for teachers, teacher educators and policy makers.