Mapping the Landscape of Teacher Efficacy in Inclusive Education from Developing Countries: A Scoping Review Protocol

Teacher efficacy, grounded in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1977), represents teachers’ beliefs in their ability to organize and execute actions required to manage prospective situations effectively. Within inclusive education, teacher efficacy is a crucial determinant of successful classroom practices, student engagement, and inclusive school culture. Teachers with high efficacy towards inclusive education tend to have a strong desire to implement inclusive teaching (Avramidis et al., 2019), persist in dealing with students who experience learning barriers, and use better teaching strategies that enable students to learn more effectively (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). In addition, high efficacy can encourage teachers to be creative in carrying out teaching reforms (Liou et al., 2019), be more tolerant towards students (Zee & Koomen, 2016), and prevent teachers from experiencing burnout (Evers et al., 2002; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007). Despite growing global interest, most empirical studies on teacher efficacy in inclusive education are concentrated in developed contexts such as North America, Europe, and Australia. In contrast, research from developing countries remains fragmented, often limited by contextual, cultural, and policy differences that influence inclusive implementation. Therefore, a scoping review of existing evidence is needed to map the conceptual, methodological, and contextual landscape of teacher efficacy studies within inclusive education in developing nations, especially to identify gaps that hinder evidence-based teacher support and policy development. Objective of the research are map the existing literature on teacher efficacy in inclusive education within developing countries, highlight conceptual frameworks and theoretical foundations, identify research trends, contexts, and methodologies used in studying teacher efficacy in these settings, identify the challenges, enablers, and outcomes related to teacher efficacy, and identify research gaps and propose directions for future empirical studies.