As is evident from its title, GSE has a global scope and ambition. Because its editors start from a conviction that globalization is to be found within rather than outside national, regional, local, etc education systems and practices, the journal is happy to accept contributions on a wide range of topics. So, while the crucial relationships are to be found in the national, they are not confined to such relationships, but also as they are revealed by studies of particular practices or professions, for instance. Our major focus is on extending social scientific understandings of these questions, and we are concerned to promote a range of theoretical understandings of issues that fall into the broad areas represented by the journal. In order to be able to shape this agenda somewhat, and not to leave our content to the vagaries of submissions from the ‘usual suspects’, around half our issues are theme based special issues, thus enabling and encouraging a range of situated and alternative voices to be given opportunities that they might not have if we relied on academic market forces, or Anglophone country writers and voices alone.