Reframing teachers’ role in post-conflict and crisis-affected contexts

Abstract This introduction to the special issue on teachers in post-conflict and crisis-affected contexts examines the roles, identities, and pedagogical practices of ELT professionals working in environments where instability, displacement, and violence profoundly reshape educational realities. Moving beyond policy-centred accounts, it foregrounds teachers’ lived experiences, highlighting how ELT practitioners function as multidimensional agents who combine language instruction with trauma-sensitive care, peacebuilding, and community stabilisation. The article conceptualises teacher identity and well-being as ecological and relational, shaped by systemic precarity, emotional labour, and limited institutional support. It further illustrates how context-responsive and politically charged pedagogies transform ELT classrooms into spaces of psychological safety, critical dialogue, and collective coping. The article argues for a shift away from reliance on individual teacher resilience towards coordinated professional development, policy reform, and systemic support. By centring teachers’ agency and expertise, it offers insights for stakeholders concerned with sustaining education and social recovery in contexts of crisis.