The special issue comes at a time when children have lost extended periods of formal schooling due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that started in 2019. Children’s social and academic lives have been upended, with those in the lowest resource contexts being affected most severely (Edwards 2021; Ford, John and Gunnell, 2021; Pascal et al. 2020). Investments in children’s educational recovery force us to think about what education should be, who it is for, and how it might be enacted (e.g., Farquharson et al. 2021). It is therefore timely, and refreshing, to hear from a range of education professionals in this special issue on the topic of children’s agency in their education.