The first decade of teachers’ professional lives: a scoping review of research in the Republic of Ireland

Evidence points to the importance of teachers’ early career experiences in influencing their development, yet synthesised accounts that holistically capture evidence of teachers’ professional lives in the first decade of teaching is lacking. Framed by theoretical perspectives on teacher development, this scoping review sought to identify the extent and type of evidence in relation to primary, post-primary and further education teachers’ experiences in the first decade of teaching post-graduation in the Republic of Ireland. The implementation of the PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) involved five steps: scoping, searching, screening, data extraction and data analysis and resulted in the inclusion of 39 research publications (33 journal articles, 1 book chapter and 5 reports). The findings indicate significantly more research in primary education contexts than the other sectors and some in-depth engagement from a contextual perspective on teacher development. However, there is a lack of comprehensive evidence to capture an overall picture of teachers’ journeys across their first decade of teaching, particularly in years 3-10. The review highlights the need for more research across all sectors to capture an overall impression of the first decade of teachers’ journeys that will inform future research, policy and practice-based initiatives.