Research on textbooks has long and strong traditions in the Czech Republic (see overview study written by J. Průcha for this issue). In recent years, several books have addressed this topic. Jan Průcha’s (1998) monograph can be considered a fundamental work on the topic, several volumes were initiated by The Institute for Research in School Education at Masaryk University in Brno (see Janík, Najvar, & Doskočilová, 2013). Despite that, we missed a more recent special journal volume presenting various research investigations in the area. A well themed issue can focus attention on a hot issue, and present a more diverse array of voices. The world conference on textbooks and educational media held in Ostrava and organized by IARTEM and the University of Ostrava’s Faculty of Education in September 2013 was a good opportunity to fill this gap, and inspired the idea of this issue. Orbis scholae is happy that it could provide authors from very diverse places − Australia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, and Spain − with the opportunity to exchange ideas and empirical findings about the textbooks or, more properly, teaching and learning resources.