The teaching of algebra has over the years descended from courses in higher education to become an integrated part of compulsory school education. Subsequently, the teaching and learning of algebra in the early grades has become an internationally established field of research (c.f. Cai & Knuth, 2011; Kieran, Pang, Schifter & Ng, 2016; Kaput, Carra- her & Blanton, 2008). Also in the Nordic and Baltic region mathematics educators have developed an interest in this field. In this special issue, some of the recent Nordic research is presented.In the autumn of 2017 a call for papers was announced. It resulted in fourteen submitted papers, and finally the seven articles in this issue of NOMAD. Combined, they provide one picture of the contemporary research. In addition to this we would like to comment on other research in this field we are aware of. However, bear in mind, this is not a structured literature review. Our aim is merely to outline the millieu of this thematic issue. We mainly describe larger research groups and projects, and apologise in advance if we have omitted other important research. [...]