Guest editorial Teaching social economics during the global financial crisis Dear Reader, It is with great pleasure to announce that you are holding, hopefully, with the intention to read the Special Issue of the International Journal of Social Economics with the theme “Teaching Social Economics during the Global Financial Crisis,” edited by the Associate Editor of the journal, Professor John Marangos. The current literature on the global financial crisis (GFC) focuses mostly on the causes of the crisis and the economic and social impact on the international economy without adequate attention being paid to the impact and the challenges of the GFC on the teaching of social economics. Economics by definition is “social economics” and as such papers from all paradigms of economics were considered for possible publication, as long as, the main theme dealt with the teaching of economics. Thus, in the first review by the editor of the special issue some papers were rejected. Papers that passed the first review by the editor of the special issue were reviewed by a minimum two anonymous referees following the double-blind review process. After requesting a revise and resubmit six papers were accepted for publication. The paper submitted by the editor of the special issue was assigned to the editor of the journal for review to avoid any bias and after acceptance it was placed last in the table of contents of the journal issue. The papers examine and explicitly deal with teaching issues of socio-economic theory and practice during the GFC. Researchers aim to demonstrate innovative approaches to incorporating the GFC in their teaching and the impact of those innovative approaches on student learning. The papers examine and question the prevailing consensus in teaching economics and, as such, illustrate alternative teaching strategies incorporating the crisis for the benefit of student learning. The teaching methodology adopted in the papers was social, holistic, historical, dynamic and comparative in nature. The primary objective first paper, “Teaching social economics: bringing the real world into the classroom and taking the classroom into the real world” by Christine Farias and Fabian Balardini, is to help students understand that the economy should be seen as a social system that evolves over time driven by conflictive and contradictory forces. Students understanding the economy in this way would be able to develop the critical thinking skills needed to make better choices for a more equitable and sustainable future. A historical/critical/action-learning approach adopted and five pedagogical teaching methods that were implemented in undergraduate economics courses demonstrate how teaching social economics can be made possible by bringing the real world into the classroom and taking the classroom into the real world. A collaborative learning environment provides much-needed change in how social economics can be taught after the GFC. The second paper, “What Economics Education is Missing: The Real World” by Stephan Pühringer and Lukas Bäuerle, is based on the documentary method, a qualitative empirical method, which combines maximum openness about the collection of empirical material and International Journal of Social Economics Vol. 46 No. 8, 2019 pp. 957-959 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0306-8293 DOI 10.1108/IJSE-08-2019-674 The author is grateful to people beyond the authors that made the special issue possible; reviewers who provided useful recommendations in rejecting and revising papers, while the author maintaining their anonymity, some reviewers went even beyond the call of duty; and the Editor of the journal Professor James Connelly, who approved the idea of a special issue on teaching and the GFC, James Pearce the Editorial Assistant and James Martin from Emerald. 957 Guest editorial