Professional Activism (PA) refers to social justice advocacy and other forms of political mobilization undertaken by professionals on behalf of the people in situations of vulnerability (PSV) in the context of educational, social, and community intervention. Recent and innovative empirical evidence on PA has revealed the need to bridge research gaps concerning the hindering influence of inland geographical contexts, gender and mental health issues on professionals PA engagement and repertoires, and about the potential and needs of PA education to mitigate these impacts. This scoping review aims to map and synthesize the existing literature that examines PA engagement and/or education of professionals who (will) work with PSV, in relation to inland geographical contexts and professionals’ gender (inequality/norms) and mental health issues (e.g., burnout). It will include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research, as well as grey literature, and exclude studies addressing political action/education outside this professional scope. This review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. A preliminary literature search was developed in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection , and a full strategy was designed for Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and SciELO Citation Index . Two independent reviewers will screen the sources based on the inclusion criteria, pilot the data extraction tool, and extract data from the sources included in the scoping review. To access grey literature (e.g., theses, dissertations), searches will be conducted in the ProQuest TM Dissertations & Theses Citation Index. The search results and study selection process will be fully reported in the final scoping review and visually presented using a PRISMA-ScR flow diagram developed in Covidence. This scoping review protocol was prospectively registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF).
Costa et al. (2026) studied this question.