This symposium arises from the WERA International Research Network on Didactics - Learning and Teaching and follows successful workshops at both the ECER 2014 Conference and at SERA 2014 Conference/WERA 2014 Focal Meeting on developing this. In turn this WERA IRN arose principally from within the EERA network on Didactics - Learning and Teaching that has provided a platform that has enabled participants to make significant contributions to advancing research in this field at an international level. The main aim of the WERA IRN 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 also aims to 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. Now in its second year, the WERA IRN will work over a period of three years with the aim of producing three major outcomes, as follows:

• A synthesis report based on a landscape review that aims to map the major territories in the field of research on Didactics – Learning and Teaching worldwide 
• A special issue of an academic journal on Didactics – Learning and Teaching
• A roadmap aimed at stimulating future research on Didactics – Learning and Teaching to be published as part of the same journal 

Hudson, B., Meyer, M., Gruson, B. and Loquet, M. (2014) Developing a WERA International Research Network on Didactics - Learning and Teaching. Research Workshop, European Conference of Educational Research, University of Porto, 1st – 5th September 2014. Hudson, B., Ligozat, F. and Meyer, M. (2014) Developing a WERA International Research Network on Didactics - Learning and Teaching. Research Workshop, Scottish Educational Research Association Conference, University of Edinburgh, 19th – 21st September 2014. 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. 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. Ligozat, F., & Leutenegger, F. (2012). Vergleichende Didaktik: Geschichte, Instrumente und Heraufsforderungen aus einer frankophonen Perspektive [Comparative didactics: history, conceptual tools, and development from a French-speaking standpoint]. Pädagogische Rundschau, 66 (Heft 6), 751‑771. Sensevy, G., Forest, D., Quilio, S. & Morales, G. (2013). Cooperative engineering as a specific design-based research. ZDM, The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 45(7), 1031-1043. Meyer, M.A., Hellekamps, St., and Wulf, Ch. (Eds.) (2012): Didactics in Europe. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Vol. 15, No. 3.