Mary O'Sullivan writes that she spent part of her sabbatical leave interviewing teacher educators from nine countries across three continents exploring teacher education contexts both nationally and locally, and the nature of the 'teacher educators' work in these contexts. Three issues struck her: (1) The intensification of regulation and policy changes around education globally was placing enormous strain on local and national initial teacher education (ITE) systems, higher education, schools and the teacher educators who enact these programmes; (2) demands on academic staff to be research active, socially engaged, AND committed to innovation in teaching and programme design was as a professor noted, 'gruelling and relentless; and (3) A sense of lack of interest in (and in a few cases a lack of respect for) teacher education research by several scholars. This special issue is part of a raft of recent publications focused on Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), and suggests a resurgence of interest in PETE research. Exploration of how sociological and social justice issues are addressed and implemented in PETE programs internationally demands teacher educators to be more critically aware how and why they might value and advocate for social justice as part of their work. O'Sullivan believes that the contributors to this issue are more optimistic relative to the potential of transformative pedagogies in PETE than Patti Lather who claimed that implementing a critical pedagogy in the field of schooling is impossible. The contributions to this special issue provoke readers to engage with PETE and PETE research and encourage the sharing of best practices in fostering awareness and commitments to social justice and equal access for all to quality teaching and learning experiences