This landmark special issue proudly marks twenty years of Educare. It unites the journal’s founding story, as told by its first editor‑in‑chief, with a twentieth‑anniversary editorial from the current editor‑in‑chief, charting a remarkable journey from a local experiment in Malmö to a recognised Nordic education journal. From fragile beginnings in a context without an established publication culture, these reflections show how a small, determined editorial team built an article‑based, peer‑reviewed platform that now makes a substantive contribution to educational research in Sweden and beyond. They spotlight bold, creative responses to challenges of identity, peer review, and financing, and the deliberate shaping of a multilingual, open‑access profile that positions Educare at the intersection of local practice and global debate. This issue is both a celebration of what has been achieved and an invitation to what comes next.

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.

The current issue features a total of eleven articles, offering a rich and diverse exploration of contemporary educational themes. Among these, nine are research articles that explore a wide range of topics, reflecting the dynamic and multifaceted nature of education in Sweden today. In addition, the issue includes one position article that presents a thought-provoking perspective on university-school research partnership work, and one book review essay that critically engages with a recent book on the economic governance of public welfare institutions, including schools. The contributions collectively address key areas such as the design and significance of educational spaces, the tension between political and educational leadership, and the evolving partnerships between universities and schools. They also explore inclusive education practices and the importance of reflective pedagogy in fostering meaningful learning experiences. Together, these articles provide valuable insights for educators, researchers, and policymakers, contributing to ongoing conversations about how to enhance educational practice and policy in diverse contexts.

This issue brings together ten research articles and one position paper that address some of today’s most pressing questions in education. The topics addressed span a wide spectrum, including reading promotion, the evolving roles of paraprofessionals, adult learning, and the development of second-language writing. Contributions also examine strategies for preparing teachers to navigate sensitive classroom discussions. Further areas of focus include sustainability through food education, equitable outcomes in the labour market, inclusive guidance for migrants, and the paradoxes of conditional flexibility within digitalised adult education. The position paper invites dialogue on children’s existential meaning-making in interactions with educational robots. These articles challenge us to reconsider what constitutes core educational work in an era of social change and technological transformation.

This concept paper explores how Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), used as an inclusive strategy, can effectively support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in attaining learner agency through its core principles of multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression. UDL is an approach to learning, teaching, and assessment that ensures accessibility, support, challenge, and engagement for diverse learners. It proactively addresses the varied competencies, identities, and learning strengths and needs of every learner. In VTS, unique perspectives are valued and explored. The VTS questions are safe and accessible, provide opportunities to build on prior knowledge, initiate an active process of discovery, develop critical thinking, communication skills, and progress learning. This paper provides brief overviews of UDL and VTS, examining recent developments in the UDL Guidelines 3.0. It demonstrates how VTS can be applied using various senses, not limited to visual stimuli. We aim to provide readers an opportunity to reflect on how the VTS process can support inclusion in an integrated UDL-VTS approach in any subject area, encouraging active engagement through the VTS technique. This concept paper will interest educator trainers and educators in early childhood, primary and post-primary (secondary) education in all subjects.

Calls from international organizations such as Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) and mandates from ministries of education in the Nordic-Baltic region highlight the importance of supporting research literacy and research skills in teacher educationand encouraging pre- and in-service teachers to concretize these skills via active research tosupport continued professional development. Research-based teacher education requires parallel processes and careful consideration of different perspectives of stakeholders in different sectors of education to enmesh research engagement into teachers’ professional identity. This paper reports on the initial work conducted within a collaborative NordPlus project "Teacher ResearchLiteracy: Comparative Trajectories in the Nordic-Baltic Region" (TREL) that engages several universities and schools in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The project seeks to strengthen teacher education programs in the Nordic and Baltic region by collecting and sharing experiences from pedagogical activities related to research literacy development in pre and in-service teachers. With its focus on documenting and discussing best practice and analysing national needs, policies, and research literacy training activities at the partner universities and schools, TREL aims to contribute to the establishment of a coherent Nordic strategy in teacher research literacy training. We will share preliminary results of the project based on the data created in collaborative workshops and observations of the English classrooms at the partner organisations and share our experiences of drafting a handbook of good practice for building research literacy in TREL’s professional learning network.