The manuscript „Trust in educational settings – what it is and why it matters“ (Bormann, Niedlich, Würbel) has been accepted for publication in European Education. The paper will introduce the special issue on „Trust in educational settings. European perspectives“ in which invited papers by colleagues from Finland, Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Germany will reflect trust in formal and non-formal educational settings. Additionally, the paper „Trust in educational settings: Insights and emerging research questions“ (Bormann, Niedlich, Würbel) has been accepted. The article combines recent theoretical tendencies and current empirical findings of interdisciplinary trust research and systematically points out approaches of forward-looking trust research in education which is oriented to the international state-of-the-art.