The EERA network on Didactics - Learning and Teaching has provided a platform that has enabled participants to make significant contributions to advancing research in this field at an international level. As a natural development of the increasing process of internationalisation, a successful application was made in the Autumn of 2013 to establish an International Research Network of the World Education Research Association on Didactics - Learning and Teaching as from Februray 2014. The main aim of this is to advance research on didactics - learning and teaching worldwide and to establish the research field fully on an international basis. This development will make a significant contribution to strengthening the vitality and reinforcing the sustainability of the field at a world level. In doing so it will offer significant potential for improving the quality of teaching, learning and the educational work of teachers at all levels of the education system, especially in schools and in teacher education.

The place of didactics, learning and teaching was the subject of discussion within the EERA for several years prior to its establishment at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) that was held at the University of Geneva in 2006. Whilst issues related to teaching, learning and subject content are central to pedagogical and didactical practices, associated discussions have tended to be fragmented. This fragmentation can be reinforced by institutional structures, particular policy initiatives, the strength of some discourse communities and the relative weaknesses of others. The issues within the European context are reflected at the international level and this WERA IRN has been developed with the aim of providing a space for dialogue for integrating such discussions at the world level. We want to establish an international space for advancing research on didactics – learning and teaching that will attract educational researchers with interests in pedagogical and didactical practices, curriculum, student learning and the teaching of specific subject areas worldwide.

The past decade has been marked by growing interest in teaching and learning at an international level, including particular interest in questions related to associated research and scholarship. Against this background are the long traditions when it comes to such questions. For example, the tradition of Didaktik can be traced back to John Amos Comenius in the seventeenth century though there is little discussion of didactics as such in the English-speaking educational community. Discussions about the nature of didactics - learning and teaching have taken on different characteristics in different national contexts and development has been especially strong in the domain of subject didactics. Furthermore, associated ideas have influenced the development of teacher education significantly in some countries, but not others, over recent years.

For these reasons, we believe that it is now timely to create a space for wider international dialogue in order to share perspectives and questions collectively as a WERA IRN community in relation to the advancement of research and scholarship in this field.

Harford, J., Hudson, B. and Niemi, H. (Eds.) (2012) Quality Assurance and Teacher Education: International Challenges and Expectations, Peter Lang (Oxford). Hudson, B. and Meyer, M. (2011) Introduction: Finding common ground beyond fragmentation. In B. Hudson and M. Meyer (Eds.) Beyond Fragmentation: Didactics, Learning and Teaching in Europe, Verlag Barbara Budrich, Opladen and Farmington Hills, 9-28. Meyer, M. Hellekamps, S. and Prenzel, M. (2008) (Eds.) Perspektiven der Didaktik: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Hudson, B. and Schneuwly, B. (2007) Editorial. In Hudson, B. and Schneuwly, B. (Eds.) Special Issue of the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ) on Didactics: Learning and Teaching in Europe, Vol. 6, No. 2, 106-108. Meyer, M.A., Hellekamps, St., and Wulf, Ch. (Eds.) (2012): Didactics in Europe. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Vol. 15, No. 3.