1_Editorial Introduction Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE) Volume 22, Issue 1, Special Issue 2020 © 2020, Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Current Issues in Comparative Education 22(1), 3-4. Editorial Introduction Paula Mantilla-Blanco Teachers College, Columbia University This year marked the latest truly global challenge for education systems worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic motivated numerous calls to face urgent, unprecedented issues in the field of education, ranging from school infrastructure to unequal access to digital resources. Efforts to imagine the “post-Covid” world and the role of education in it have become commonplace. The challenge of envisioning education for post-Covid intersects with the uncertainties of when or how such “post” will take place. But a post-pandemic world is far from being the only imagined “post” reality that shapes educational efforts in the present. This Special Issue of Current Issues in Comparative Education engages with questions about the temporal dimension of issue-driven programs, taking the projections into the future as an analytical tool to understand controversies in the present. Tavis D. Jules draws on the case of Tunisia to illustrate how the concept of transitologies can be used to understand educational forms and reforms in “post- spaces.” The author traces four different historical periods in Tunisia and suggests that educational codings in periods of transition are framed by political and economic power. Shedding light on the complexity of educational projects in post-spaces, this article offers theoretical insights into the connections between transitological and policy discourses. MaryFaith Mount-Cors, Jill Gay, and Rokhaya Diop explore how gender equality can be addressed within schools and communities at the start of primary school in low- and middle-income countries. This article draws on the case of an early primary reading program in Senegal, as well as on existing literature on gender-related issues, to discuss barriers to gender transformative approaches. The authors introduce strategies to acknowledge and address these barriers and underscore the importance of addressing gender equality in the present to ensure a future transformation. Matthew Gallagher and Carrie Bauer describe and analyze an innovative education program in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. This program used offline technology to provide a university-level course in agribusiness to refugee students. Highlighting the ways in which this program enhanced skills such as digital literacy, the authors stress the importance of providing higher education opportunities for refugees so that, upon returning to their home countries, refugees will be better equipped to contribute to future post-conflict reconstruction efforts. Seulgi Kang takes an imagined post-unification Korea as a scenario for testing the decentralization theory on education finance. The author conducts an analysis of the relationship between educational outcomes and education finance models in 40 OECD countries to identify whether fiscal decentralization is effective in closing the gaps between two different socio-economic communities. Kang applies this analysis to make a case for a deconcentration model in a future Unified Korea. Current Issues in Comparative Education 4 Hasnain R. Badami and Rubab Fatima propose a pedagogical framework rooted in experiential learning and critical pedagogy. Drawing on the case of a low-fee private school in Pakistan, the authors introduce the 5A framework and assess the impact of implementing it in the classroom through a qualitative methodology. Noting the need to prepare students for a post-information age, this model is designed to help teachers reconceptualize the purpose of education as a tool for transformation. Kara D. Brown, Payal P. Shah, and E. Doyle Stevick offer a relevant critique of labeling practices in the field of Comparative and International Education (CIE). The authors note how the labels that scholars and students attach to specific places reflect power, perspective, and plurality. This article offers examples and introduces a framework to address categorization processes, advocating for a more intentional approach to labels in teaching CIE. The authors put forth a pertinent invitation to question the use of the “post” prefix itself. Finally, Paul Tarc’s timely essay on education for a post-Covid-19 world closes this Special Issue. Tarc reflects on the global transition to online education and how the challenges posed by Covid-19 might shape a future return to face-to-face education. Going beyond concerns about the practical implications of a return to normality, the author takes the abrupt move towards an online environment as a vantage point for reimagining face-to-face pedagogies. This issue calls attention to the multiple ways in which education is tasked with addressing – and creating – a reality that has yet to come. Adding nuance to the forward-looking nature of education, this collection of articles contributes to our understanding of the temporal dimension of comparative education. Paula Mantilla-Blanco is a doctoral fellow in International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the editor in chief of Current Issues in Comparative Education. Email: plm2128@tc.columbia.edu; for CICE business please contact cice@tc.columbia.edu.