Early-Career Music Teachers’ Professional Induction: A Scoping Review of Challenges, Supports, and Key Influencing Factors

Professional induction presented challenges that affected music teachers’ well-being, professional development, and retention. Discipline-specific working conditions and organizational contexts add further complexity. Although early-career experiences have been studied, the scope and nature of existing evidence remained unclear. This scoping review mapped and synthesized research on early-career music teachers’ experiences, including challenges, support sources, and protective factors. Forty-five studies published between 1995 and 2024, mostly qualitative and conducted in the United States, met inclusion criteria. The findings characterized professional induction as a multidimensional turning point shaped by structural challenges, the quality of support, and teachers’ individual perceptions. Despite demanding conditions, this period generated meaning, satisfaction, and professional growth. A deeper understanding of this experience could inform education policies, induction programs, and mentoring systems designed to reflect the realities of music teaching. Further research in diverse contexts and using longitudinal designs was recommended to better support early-career music teachers’ induction and retention.