Dear Colleagues,

Within the global sustainability discourse, education is conceptualized as both an intrinsic objective and a transformative mechanism for advancing sustainable development (Wamsler, 2020). This conceptualization is embedded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in which education is framed as a central pillar underpinning social inclusion, equity, and long-term human development. The global education agenda further underscores the importance of ensuring quality educational access and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all (United Nation, 2015). The pursuit of sustainable education has increasingly shifted from a primarily curricular or policy-oriented agenda toward deeper concerns about how educational systems are governed, experienced, and enacted by individuals and organizations (Ncube et al., 2026; Wamsler, 2020). In this transition, psychological factors play a critical yet underexplored role. Sustainable education is not only shaped by institutional strategies, leadership structures, or resource allocation, but also by how students, educators, and administrators perceive sustainability, internalize its values, cope with change, and translate long-term goals into everyday practices (García-González et al., 2020; Ncube et al., 2026; Pacis & VanWynsberghe, 2020). Psychological processes such as motivation, sense-making, identity formation, emotional responses, well-being, and decision-making influence whether sustainability-oriented initiatives are embraced, resisted, or transformed within educational settings (Baena‐Morales et al., 2024; Grund et al., 2024). From this perspective, sustainable education and educational management are fundamentally psychological and organizational phenomena, requiring greater analytical attention to the human and behavioural dimensions underlying educational governance, leadership, and implementation.

In addition, in recent years, research in applied linguistics and language education has increasingly emphasized that English teaching and learning are deeply social, emotional, and identity-mediated processes rather than purely technical or methodological practices. Scholarship has demonstrated that language teachers’ professional identities are continuously shaped through their engagement with institutional structures, policy discourses, sociocultural expectations, and classroom interactions (Barkhuizen, 2021; De Costa et al., 2020). This growing body of work foregrounds the central role of teacher identity, agency, and emotion in understanding how TESOL practices are enacted, sustained, and transformed across diverse educational contexts. Parallel to this shift, language teacher education has moved beyond a narrow focus on skills transmission and pedagogical competence toward greater attention to teachers’ professional learning as a process of identity negotiation and development over time (Jiang & Zhang, 2021). Recent studies highlight how pre-service and in-service teachers navigate tensions between personal beliefs and institutional demands, negotiate legitimacy and authority, and exercise agency under conditions of curricular reform, accountability, and globalization (Robertson & Yazan, 2022). These processes are particularly salient in TESOL contexts characterized by linguistic diversity, unequal power relations, and competing ideologies of English. Moreover, emerging research underscores the importance of affective and psychological dimensions, such as emotion labor, motivation, and well-being, in shaping teachers’ professional identities and pedagogical decision-making (Nazari et al., 2023). Such findings call for a more holistic understanding of English language education that integrates cognitive, emotional, and sociocultural perspectives, while critically examining how teachers respond to structural constraints and opportunities within local and global TESOL landscapes.

This Call for Papers invites empirical and conceptual contributions that examine sustainable education, education management, language teacher identity, language teacher education, English teaching and learning, and TESOL through a psychological lens. We particularly welcome research that advances understanding of how psychological factors shape the design, implementation, and outcomes of sustainability-oriented educational practices and management strategies across different levels of analysis. Submissions may explore, for example, how psychological dynamics influence leadership and governance for sustainability, stakeholder engagement, organizational change, institutional resilience, professional development, and long-term educational performance. We encourage studies that move beyond descriptive accounts of sustainability initiatives to critically examine the underlying psychological mechanisms that enable or constrain sustainable transformation in educational organizations. Contributions may adopt quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches and may focus on diverse educational contexts, including higher education, schools, vocational education, and lifelong learning. Interdisciplinary perspectives and cross-level analyses that link individual experiences with organizational and systemic outcomes are especially encouraged. By foregrounding psychological perspectives, this collection aims to enrich theoretical debates in sustainable education, education management, language teacher identity, language teacher education, English teaching and learning, and TESOL while offering actionable insights for educational leaders, policymakers, and institutions seeking to embed sustainability in meaningful and enduring ways, and deepening scholarly dialogue on the human, contextual, and identity-based dimensions of TESOL and language teacher education.

Suggested Topics

Psychological Drivers of Sustainable Transformation in Educational Organizations

Leadership Mindsets and Psychological Readiness for Sustainable Education Management

Wellbeing, Burnout, and the Sustainability of Educational Management Practices

Sense-Making and Meaning Construction in Sustainability-Oriented Education Reform

Psychological Barriers and Enablers of Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainable Education

Identity, Values, and Commitment in Sustainability-Focused Educational Institutions

Decision-Making Under Uncertainty in Sustainable Education Management

Psychological Resilience and Adaptive Capacity in Sustainable Education Systems

Language Teacher Identity Construction and Negotiation in TESOL Contexts

Teacher Agency, Emotion, and Well-being in English Language Education

Identity-Oriented Approaches to Language Teacher Education and Professional Development

English Teaching and Learning in Multilingual, Transnational, or Policy-Driven Settings

Power, Ideology, and Inequality in TESOL Practices and Teacher experiences

Narrative, Discursive, and Sociocultural Perspectives on Teacher Learning

(For any inquiries regarding the special issue, please feel free to contact Dr. Sun Biqiang at williamsun121@outlook.com. A response will be provided within five working days. )

 Dr. Biqiang Sun

 Dr. Yiyun Liang 

Guest Editors