In both pre-service and in-service teacher education there is increasing recognition of the diverse settings in which teachers work. Despite the power of default discourses of ‘what schools are’ (see Johnston & Hayes, 2008; Tyack & Cuban, 1995), the educational landscape is varied in terms of organisational structures and educational approaches.

This special issue takes as its starting point the diversity of educational provision at secondary school level – and focuses on one specific set of providers: alternative and flexible education settings. These schools and programmes are aimed at young people who – for whatever reason – are unlikely to complete upper secondary qualifications (‘Year 12’ in Australia) in more traditional settings but who nevertheless would like to achieve such educational credentials (Mills & McGregor, 2014; Te Riele, 2007). Recent policy and economic pressures – not only in Australia (CoAG, 2009) but also internationally (e.g. European Union, 2011) – have led to increased demand for such alternative pathways to school completion. As a result, in many countries alternative and flexible education settings are now a small but significant part of the education sector in which teachers work. This makes an investigation of teaching in these settings of interest in its own right, as recognition of the relevance of these settings as workplaces and the implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education to support teachers’ work in these sites.