Vol. 26 No. 2 (2025): Fall Issue

We are excited to share the Fall 2025 issue of Current Issues in Education, a collection of seven insightful manuscripts that invite us to reflect on what it means to belong and why belonging matters now more than ever for shaping our shared educational futures.

This issue is anchored by our editorial introduction, Reflecting Our Shared Educational Futures: A Global Need to Belong for Transformative Learning, authored by five of our dedicated editors. The introduction traces how belonging operates across individual, interpersonal, and institutional contexts, revealing the powerful role it plays in fostering agency, purpose, and transformation within education systems.

Across the pages of this issue, readers will encounter three interconnected themes:

• Engaging with the Micro: Human Experience & Professional Belonging

• Exploring the Meso: Academic Design as Shared Authority

• Visiting the Macro: Systemic Belonging and Transformative Leadership

Each manuscript illuminates a different dimension of this ecosystem of belonging—from early-career teachers navigating identity and mentorship, to school-level teams redesigning curriculum and assessment, to institutional leaders cultivating cultures of trust, equity, and shared responsibility. Together, these works remind us that transformation is not driven solely by reform mandates or structural shifts, but by relationships that help individuals and communities feel seen, supported, and empowered.

We extend our sincere appreciation to the authors who entrusted us with their scholarship, to our reviewers whose thoughtful engagement strengthens the quality of each publication, and to our editorial board of MLFC graduate students for their continued care, labor, and commitment to this journal.

We invite you to read this issue as an opportunity to pause, reflect, and imagine. In a moment when education is shaped by polarization, pressure, and rapid change, these articles offer a blueprint for something different: futures where belonging is not an afterthought, but a guiding principle that nurtures agency, collaboration, and the transformative possibilities of learning.

We hope this issue inspires meaningful dialogue, sparks new questions, and supports your ongoing work toward more connected, inclusive, and life-affirming educational environments.

With care,

Jami Carmichael, on behalf of the amazing CIE editorial team