We are delighted to receive numerous significant and insightful contributions to Beijing International Review of Education in recent years. Through a rigorous peer review, we select several timely and groundbreaking articles for the issue 3 of volume 5. Although the topics of the articles are independent of one another, a shared theme emerges when we take a closer look at them. We name the theme as “Context-Specific Lens of Education Research for a Globalized World”.

The articles in this issue imply, context-specific lens implies a comparative perspective that is essential for us to learn the complexities of educational issues in the rapidly changing and interconnected world. For instance, after comparing learning communities for postgraduate students across different regions and universities, Saito, Kwok and O’Donovan show the importance of context-specific factors in shaping the effectiveness of the learning communities. Moreover, Ma et al.’s article calls for international collaboration in addressing the challenges and difficulties facing higher education in China and the United States. The authors’ analyses and discussions imply that studies need to conduct comparative analysis of sociocultural factors of the collaborating institutions to articulate the reasons why the collaborations can succeed and fail. In addition, Tsang is concerned about the importance of teacher emotions to stem education, which is a pedagogical practice draw many people attention across the globe in a recent decade, highlighting stem teachers’ emotions are constructed at intrapersonal, interactional, and institutional levels. That means, stem teachers’ emotions and quality are not only affected by psychological factors of individual teachers, but also organizational, national, and international factors. In other words, a comparative study of the context-specific factors at intrapersonal, interactional, and institutional concerns is required to learn the causes and effects of stem teachers’ emotions on stem education across the globe.

Context-specific lens also implies education is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, i.e., no one can guarantee what works in a context must work in another one. Thus, studies should provide a thick description and in-deep analysis of a particular sociocultural context in order to reveal specific what an educational phenomenon is like that in a given context. For example, Harrison et al.’s article examines how teachers perceive and enact humility in the pedagogy and wider contexts of local and international schools in Hong Kong, showing how sociocultural factors of Hong Kong shape teachers’ conceptions and enactment of humility. Their study has theoretical implications to understand how education is affected by cultural, pedagogical, and educational philosophies and practices in local educational settings nested in global educational discourse. In addition, Solheim and Liu’s article demonstrate the importance of investigating the impact of global forces of neoliberalism on higher education and illustrate how a society responds to the forces based on its local sociocultural landscape through the case about charging tuition fee for international students in Norway. The study is significant and original because it illustrates how to conduct and write about global policy matters in a way that relies on secondary data but narrates this in a sophisticated way. Similarly, Zhang et al.’s article also suggests the need for innovative and context-specific lens to learn the opportunities and challenges Open ai brings to China, and global communities in general.

To conclude, the articles in this issue demonstrate the importance and significance of the context-specific lens to education research in a globalized world. To investigate the unique needs and challenges of different contexts and to understand international and global patterns of education, we need develop effective strategies and methodologies to study context-specific factors that play a critical role shaping education in the rapidly changing and globalized world.