Introduction: (Re)Shaping Educational Justice in the Post-COVID-19 Era

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented global disruption to education systems, exposing and deepening pre-existing structural inequalities. This special issue of Social Justice Research (SJR), titled (Re)Shaping Educational Justice in the Post-COVID-19 Era, critically explores how the pandemic has reshaped normative debates and empirical realities concerning educational justice. Grounded in theories of distributive justice, the introduction conceptualizes education as a complex distributive sphere encompassing four interrelated domains: access to education, pedagogical practices, assessment and grading, and teacher–student relationships. Drawing on diverse international case studies, the special issue examines how these domains—framed as “distributive arenas”—were reconfigured during the COVID-19 crisis, catalyzing new justice claims and practices. While the pandemic exacerbated existing educational disparities, it simultaneously created openings for ethical reflection, pedagogical innovation, and redistributive action. By situating the seven contributions of the special issue within broader scholarly and policy discourses, the introduction calls for a justice-oriented reimagining of education—one that is more equitable, inclusive, and attuned to the diverse needs of learners. It concludes by urging future research to move beyond conventional distributive frameworks to engage with educational structural, cultural, and epistemic dimensions of injustice in an increasingly volatile and unequal world.