This handbook brings together contributions from teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders across five Nordic and Baltic countries — Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — to examine how research literacy is developed in teacher education and practised in upper-secondary school classrooms. It represents the culmination of the two-year Teacher Research Literacy: Comparative Trajectories in the Nordic-Baltic Region (TREL) project, funded by the Nordplus Horizontal programme.

The volume is organised in three parts. The first presents case studies from universities in the participating countries, documenting how research literacy is embedded in pre-service teacher education programmes and how student teachers are supported in moving from research consumers to reflective research practitioners. The second part gives voice to in-service teachers at Norwegian upper-secondary schools who, in partnership with university colleagues, designed and carried out classroom-based action research projects while continuing to teach full-time. These chapters are written in the teachers' own voices and reflect the realities, uncertainties, and professional development that come with integrating research into everyday teaching practice. The third part offers perspectives from school leaders on how to cultivate and sustain teacher research literacy at the institutional level.

Taken together, the chapters address two fundamental questions: why teachers need to become research literate, and how teacher education programmes can be designed to support that process. The handbook is intended as a resource for pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, and policymakers with an interest in evidence-based teaching and research-informed professional development.

Integrating research literacy into teacher education fosters a sustainable, equitable, and effective education system by enhancing teaching practices, empowering lifelong learning, supporting informed decision-making, promoting inclusiveness, and influencing educational policies. The necessity of such research-grounded education systems is acknowledged by international organizations like the OECD. Mandates from Nordic-Baltic education ministries emphasize the critical need to enhance research literacy and skills in teacher education. This involves encouraging both pre- and in-service teachers to engage in active research, thereby fostering their professional development. Achieving research-based teacher education requires parallel processes and thorough consideration of diverse stakeholder perspectives across various educational sectors to integrate research engagement into teachers’ professional identities. This paper presents the initial findings from the NordPlus project “Teacher Research Literacy: Comparative Trajectories in the Nordic-Baltic Region” (TREL). The project involves collaboration among universities and schools in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. It aims to strengthen teacher education programs in the Nordic and Baltic regions by sharing experiences from pedagogical activities focused on developing research literacy in preand in-service teachers. By documenting best practices and analyzing national needs, policies, and research literacy training activities at partner institutions, TREL seeks to establish a unified Nordic strategy for teacher research literacy training. Preliminary results, derived from collaborative workshops and classroom observations, will be shared, along with insights from drafting a handbook of good practices for building research literacy within TREL’s professional learning network.

Research literacy - the skills to engage with, apply, and produce educational research - is increasingly recognized as a key component of language teacher development. This perspective challenges the traditional view of language teachers as passive curriculum implementers, instead positioning them as informed, active, and critically engaged professionals. These teachers are not only acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for effective teaching but are also shaping their practice and, in doing so, constructing their own Language Teacher Identity (LTI). Among the many factors that influence LTI, research literacy stands out for its potentially powerful role in fostering teachers’ sense of agency. When teachers are equipped to critically engage with research, they are better positioned to reflect on their practice, make informed decisions, and grow as professionals. Embedding research literacy into teacher education thus enhances pedagogical effectiveness, supports reflective practice and empowers teachers as agents of change.Recognizing this, international bodies such as the OECD and education ministries across the Nordic-Baltic region advocate for integrating research literacy not merely as a skillset, but as a foundational element of teacher identity and professional growth. This paper presents findings from the NordPlus project “Teacher Research Literacy: Comparative Trajectories in the NordicBaltic Region” (TREL). The TREL project brings together universities and schools across Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania to strengthen teacher education through pedagogical initiatives that foster research literacy. Drawing on data from collaborative workshops, classroom observations, and policy analysis, we explore how research engagement can be meaningfully embedded in teacher identity formation across diverse cultural and institutional contexts. We also discuss the development of a handbook of best practices, designed to support a unified Nordic strategy for research-based teacher education. Ultimately, these findings contribute to ongoing discussions on LTI, professionalization, and the transformative role of research in cultivating empowered, reflective language teachers.

Virtual Exchange refers to the numerous initiatives and methodologies which engage learners in sustained online collaborative learning and interaction with partners from different cultural backgrounds as part of their study programs and under the guidance of teachers or trained facilitators. This book reports on a large-scale European project, VALIANT (Virtual Innovation and Support Networks for Teachers), which explored how Virtual Exchange can be applied to bring togethaer students of Initial Teacher Education with in-service teachers. The book also examines how participation in these Virtual Exchange initiatives impacted on aspects of teachers’ and student teachers’ professional development, their motivation levels, sense of professional isolation as well as on their intercultural, digital and other soft skills.

Nowadays, transformations of cultures and languages are increasingly noticeable due to heightened international mobility and intensified global communication and information flows. How such transformations play out and are met in Swedish education is a pressing topic to address to ensure relevant and inclusive quality education for all. The theme of this special issue, Culture on the Move, foregrounds language and literature both as pedagogical tools and disciplinary fields necessary for learning to live and work in a culturally diverse world. The contributions stem from the initial activities within the graduate school “Culturally Empowering Education through Language and Literature” (CuEEd-LL). Centre-staging teaching and learning in Swedish education, the articles in this issue present a range of inroads into how language and literature can be used to support cultural diversity among pupils, students and teachers since cultural diversity is steadily gaining attention both as a resource and a challenge in education and society.

This special issue consists of five position papers, four articles and two essays covering diverse aspects of the theme Culture on the Move that foregrounds language and literature both as pedagogical tools and disciplinary fields necessary for learning to live and work in a culturally diverse world. The contributions stem from the initial activities within the graduate school “Culturally Empowering Education through Language and Literature” (CuEEd-LL). Centre-staging teaching and learning in Swedish education, the texts in this issue present a range of inroads into how language and literature can be used to support cultural diversity among pupils, students and teachers since cultural diversity is steadily gaining attention both as a resource and a challenge in education and society.