The network was first proposed at the Annual General Assembly of EERA in Dublin in 2005  and received a strong response to the invitation to submit proposals for the conference in Geneva in 2006. Accordingly the network was was formally established at the Annual General Assembly of the ECER 2006 conference in Geneva following a successful programme of papers and symposia. The network has continued to grow steadily with successful programmes in Ghent at ECER 2007 and in Gothenburg 2008.

The ground work for establishing the network was carried out by Brian Hudson, Ingrid Carlgren and Kirsti Klette and they were joined by Meinert Meyer, Margaret Kirkwood, Bernard Schneuwly and Michael Uljens to form the first convenors group.
Subsequently Maragaret and Michael left the convenors group and Gérard Sensevy, Andreja Starcic, Jens Dolin and Stefan Hopmann have joined it. The focus has remained the same since the network was first established though with increased emphasis given to the inter-disciplinary aspects of the field as the network has developed.

The papers from the Opening Symposium of the network at ECER 2006 in Geneva were subsequently published in the EERJ as detailed below:
Hudson, B. and Schneuwly, B. (2007) (Eds.) Special Issue of the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ) on Didactics – Learning and Teaching in Europe, No. 2, 2007  http://www.wwwords.co.uk/EERJ/content/pdfs/6/issue6_2.asp