Textbooks and teaching and learning materials internationally

The International Association for Research in Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM) is a major international research group. IARTEM researchers focus in the investigation of textbooks and teaching and learning materials in learning and education. Their research emphasises two themes. The first theme concerns the features of textbooks and teaching and learning materials; and the ways that these features of textbooks and teaching and learning materials constrain or afford learning from them. The second theme concerns that the ways that teachers use textbooks and teaching and learning materials, with their students in the classroom; and how teachers mediate the use, development and design of textbooks and teaching and learning materials.IARTEM has board of directors drawn from researchers in 11 different nations, and its membership comprises researchers from 34 different countries. IARTEM believes in the importance of teaching and learning resources (both print and digital, both textbooks and teacher designed materials) in supporting and promoting learning. IARTEM members know that the socio-cultural context of schooling and the subsequent use and valuing of different teaching and learning materials like textbooks is very different in each country. The following paper examines differences between nations in a series of key indicators that frame the investigation of textbooks in different countries.