Teachers’ professional journeys during the first decade longitudinal study: reviews of literature

Context: Teachers Professional Journeys (TPJ): The First Decade (2024-2030) is an accelerated longitudinal mixed-methods study focused on understanding the dynamics of teacher learning and development from the final year of initial teacher education (ITE) through the first nine years of teachers’ work within classrooms and schools in the context of the wider education system at primary, post-primary and further education (FE) sectors in Ireland. The purpose of this first report is to document several reviews of literature undertaken to support subsequent phases of the TPJ study and, in particular, the second report which will be focused on study design and instrument development as the basis for subsequent phases of the study.

TPJ Study Aim and Objectives: 

The overarching aim of the TPJ study is “to understand beginning teachers’ professional journeys, by examining the key personal, educational, professional and systemic influences that define and shape their early careers and practice, including the impact of different learning and professional development phases”. Flowing from that overarching aim, the five TPJ study objectives are:

1. To examine beginning teachers’ attitudes, values, dispositions and formative experiences in relation to teaching and learning. 

2. To investigate early career teachers’ and other stakeholders’ perceptions of their capacity (knowledge, skills, experience, preparedness) to meet the needs of learners in a variety of school contexts. 

3. To explore teachers’ early professional learning and career experiences as they leave ITE and transition across the three phases of professional development. 

4. To review the ability of ITE programmes, Droichead and Cosán to respond to national priorities, policy and practice developments. 

5. To consider issues relating to teacher supply, diversity and retention. Reviews of Literature Method: Four literature reviews and three scoping reviews were undertaken. 

An issues paper was also drafted. All three scoping reviews were conducted using the guidelines in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) with searches undertaken via Scopus, EBSCO and Web of Science. The objective of the scoping reviews is to understand the extent and type of evidence in relation to (i) longitudinal studies on teaching 1970-2023, (ii) large scale cross-national studies of teaching 2000-2023 and (iii) research on teachers in Ireland (years 1-9) 2000-2023 across primary, post-primary and FE. A teacher supply issues paper, drawing on relevant national and international literature, addresses a range of issues related to teacher supply in the Irish context. 

Findings: Main findings of the three scoping reviews report on respectively are: (i) the growth over the last 15 years in longitudinal studies on teaching, spanning the five TPJ objectives, with a diversity of designs incorporating qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods (based on a review of 207 full text studies published 2010-2023), (ii) the range of large-scale cross-national informative quantitative designed studies with foci and findings spanning the five TPJ objectives (based on a review of 202 full text studies), and (iii) the overall small number of studies in Ireland on teachers’ work in years 1-9 at primary and post primary levels and not much literature on FE (based on a review of 39 full text studies involving over 9,000 participants). The teacher supply issues paper presents a teacher supply framework, identifies data gaps in Ireland and notes key insights from the burgeoning literature on a growing challenge globally. 
Conclusion: The literature reviews collectively provide a range of research insights on teachers’ professional journeys during the first decade, drawing on purposefully chosen diverse research literature. These insights span the framing of studies, research questions, study designs, instruments, findings and policy implications in a context where wider external system factors are increasingly influential in shaping teachers’ professional journeys in addition to the long-recognised (though less well-understood) dynamics of schools’ organizational cultures.