WS G: How to review your theoretical and conceptual framework and make it explicit for research in didactics, teaching and learning?

In this workshop we will address the question of how to review theoretical and conceptual frameworks underlying research in didactics and make them explicit. 

What kind of “glasses” do we have on while studying teaching and learning, and how does this affect what we “see”? How can we become aware of this and elaborate upon it when communicating our didactical research? How do we refer to different theoretical framework in didactical research and make our own theoretical position more explicit within these references?

Using the approach of peer review, we will collectively explore different perspectives and make the connection with existing didactical traditions and currents in different countries (Hallitzky et al. 2016, Hudson/Meyer 2011, Ligozat et al. 2023) by focusing together on a selection of concrete cases. We also refer to research about theoretical frameworks in other disciplines (e.g., Kumar et al 2025).

The organizer of the workshop, the network 27, aims at bringing together educational researchers from the diverse traditions in relation to didactics, teaching and learning, for different subject-specific domains, in Europe and beyond. Reflection on the diverse perspectives didactical research can take in different countries lies at the heart of the dynamics of this network as a Europe-wide meeting place for researchers in didactics. For this reason, making the theoretical and conceptual framework underlying your own research explicit and elaborating upon it is very relevant for participation in the network dynamics and activities.

Building on participants’ reflections on their own perspectives in didactic research and drawing on theoretical research methods in educational sciences — particularly in international comparative research on teaching, learning, and didactics — we will explore how to acknowledge the diversity of possible underlying frameworks in didactics and to make these frameworks comprehensible to researchers from different national and cultural traditions in didactic research, thereby facilitating international exchange within our network.