The Corona virus has come like a tornado affecting all spheres of human life. Not all effects are bad. Education in particular and Academia in general have been among the worst hit. As governments across the world grapple with the negative economic ramifications of the pandemic, the direction of funds is towards the immediate economic needs of the reeling population rather than towards academia. Even if there are some funds allocated to Academia, a lions share is claimed by research dealing with the pandemic.

In this special issue, papers that relate the effects of the Virus on the Academia shall be accepted. The effects have been good, such as, online education which was at the fringes for the academic and research consciousness. The effects have been bad such as drying of funding towards academia. The also have been some neutral effects such as less students seen on campuses.

The world we are living in is a place where numerous cultures exist and live together. There are discussions about the necessity of talking about “world citizenship” since the world has become smaller as a result of developed technology. On the other hand, researchers generally put emphasis on the reality that each culture needs to be taken care of just because they are a part of humanity.

While culture is a term that needs to be studied in itself, the effects of education on culture or of culture on education should also be studied since those two terms are closely related and should not be considered as separate.

In this special issue, we are looking for both qualitative and quantitative studies on culture and education that approach to the issue from sociological, psychological, anthropological or economical point of view. Studies on developing nations will be given priority.

In an influential article, The Task of Liberal Theory after September 11, (Perspectives on Politics, June, 2004) J. Judd Owen puts forth as the principle issue of the new millennium: the single most profound theoretical challenge since liberalism's origins ... is ... the challenge of illiberal revealed theology. Judd raises this issue when discussing the Islamic theorist Sayyid Qutb (Milestones, Kazi, 2003), but certainly Judd does not restricted to this argument to Qutb or to Islam or to politics. What is being identified is a set of beliefs that oppose the very notion of 'modernity'.

In religious terms this includes opposition to opposition to ideas and practices that put 'man' before 'God'. Such beliefs are quite prevalent among by followers of Evangelical Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, and Sharia-based Islam. In more pragmatic terms, such beliefs often oppose assimilation into liberal secular society. In Israel, for instance, where most of the students are Jewish many Orthodox Jewish families refuse to educate their children in secular Israeli schools.

Politically, of course, Judd realizes that 'separatism' has always been a part of liberal society. What we propose to investigate is a separatism that does not include tolerance for the 'other'. Without necessarily speaking of discussing 'illiberal revealed theology', those who do research in many areas of contemporary life discover the social rationale for the strength and persistence of 'illiberal revealed theology'. These investigations include the study family life, but may extend out to schools and curriculum, and popular culture. Taken in its broadest sense, as faith is incorporated into social identity, the appeal of fundamentalism is quite profound. We propose to investigate areas in which the social role of religious fundamentalist and anti-secularist identity in a variety of contemporary settings.

Postmodernism is the movement which distinguished the entire contemporary philosophy. The main aim of this movement is to destruct the classic ontological theories as sources of producing rigid absolute foundation upon which the structure of knowledge is based. This rigid absolute foundation led to the arise of comprehensive systems which in turn led to conflicts between different kinds of systems of knowledge like the conflict between religion and science. The main aim of this issue is to clarify the possibility of the emergence of profound postmodern- religious system .through which religion ceases to exclude each other and other systems of knowledge. Religion also stops the intervention in scientific systems, particularly humanities, by restricting such scientific research to its ethics and history. The crucial question is if it is possible for the essential comprehensive character of religion to be abandoned. Eventually, we also aim to clarify the impact of that radical change on different intellectual fields, like philosophy, politics, sociology.

Over the last two decades, schools, and by association teachers, have been confronted with new challenges, such as increasing roles and responsibilities; changes occurring in social agencies; greater influence of the media on the education of children and young people; the co-existence of different educational models in a multicultural society; the fragmentation of teachers’ work; growing opportunities for learning outside school owing to the development of information and communication technologies; and increasing contractual accountability, bureaucracy and public scrutiny. Indeed, the teaching profession is in a period marked by increased bureaucratization, increased forms of managerialism, and greater accountability (Day, Flores & Viana, 2007). These changes advocate for a new vision for school science, comprising principles, standards, and practices that are grounded on research in the learning sciences (Luehmann, 2007). In fact, the school is changing and its lived experience too, and thus we perceive the emergence of a distinctive professional identity. Thus, the research about the (re)construction of the ‘Professional Identity’ is of great importance, the outcome of an interface between the personal experiences of teachers and the social, cultural, and institutional context in which they function on a daily basis (Jurasaite-Harbison, 2005). Identity, particularly role identity, has served as an important construct in research on teachers and teaching, but requires new investments. Identities exist as reifications and within relevant social practices. Professional identity, and teacher identity more specifically, is a complex concept that includes: people’s legitimate participation in a profession; their occupation of a professional ‘role’ and ability to control the practices, language, tools and resources associated with that role; the ideals, values and beliefs that lead them to commit to a profession; the unique way in which they personify their professional role as a result of the experiences that have influenced them through their career; and the representation of themselves as a professional that they project both to themselves and to others (Richardson, Writing, 2000). Teacher identity is inextricably linked to professional practice and to continued professional learning and development (Giddens, 1994). Becoming a teacher involves, in essence, the (trans)formation of the teacher identity; a process that begins before higher education (anticipatory socialization), followed by socialization during initial training (higher education and professional training), continuing along the career path.

Taking account of this context the aim of this special issue is to bring new evidences in the research area of teacher professional identity. The focus is the process of construction and (re)construction of teachers’ professional identity not only during the teacher career but also during the educational training process.