How K-12 Educators Perceive Advocacy for the Education Profession in the United States: A Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract

Many educators in the United States are advocates for the education profession; however, little is known about K-12 perceptions of advocacy. This article systematically scoped the literature on the types of articles that have been written on educator advocacy that include information on teacher perceptions and attitudes. A systematic scoping literature review, combined descriptive synthesis, and textual narrative synthesis were completed. A total of 9,051 articles were identified by the search strategy. Of these, 18 were included for analysis and synthesis. Twelve articles were qualitative, three were mixed methods, and three were quantitative. Articles were categorized according to research objective types, educator population types, and occurring themes. This systematic scoping review revealed gaps in the literature on the subject. Gaps included studies with small sample sizes generally limited to single academic institutions or locations. Additionally, most study results were not generalizable to larger populations, and no studies were written solely to determine educators’ perceptions of advocacy for the education profession. Studies that used quantitative methods had the highest quality and validity, and the highest quality qualitative studies were those that used multiple qualitative methods. Future studies would benefit from focusing on educators’ perceptions of advocacy for the education profession to determine what might motivate educators to be advocates.