Research Institute for the Futures of Education (RIFE) (Memo U2425-041)

I am pleased to announce the establishment of Ateneo de Manila’s Research Institute for the Futures of Education (RIFE), the newest center under the Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design (GBSEALD). Envisioned in line with the Magis Aspiration of Education Reform and Transformation, RIFE will be Ateneo de Manila’s educational policy research center that hopes to engage the country’s education ecosystem—from learners to educators and administrators, both public and private sector partners—to inform and influence policy that will improve systems of learning and teaching in Philippine schools.

RIFE is the center that will coordinate the EDCOM2 research projects recently awarded to sixteen research fellows. 

Given the rapid technological advancements and unprecedented challenges facing it, the education landscape is evolving at an extraordinary pace, with emerging new models of learning for the 21st century.

For this reason, educational policy research needs to go beyond its current focus of mitigating existing problems and aim to deliver solutions for the immediate. It needs to examine emerging trends, practices and technologies that allow us to “learn from the future” in order to anticipate and prepare for emerging challenges and opportunities in education. Through a future-forward
approach to research, RIFE can begin shaping proactive education policies today that will help build resilient, inclusive and adaptable learning ecosystems in the Philippines.

To promote this futures thrust and drive its mission forward, I have appointed Maria Teresa Rosario “Marite” P Irvine as the Executive Director of RIFE effective 1 October 2024 to 31 May 2025. Marite is the founder of Forge Futures, a Strategic Foresight and Futures Research, Strategy and Ideas Practice and has over twenty years of experience in research-based strategy, innovation and implementation for the private and development sectors. An Atenean herself, Marite will lead RIFE in providing a critical, multidisciplinary and innovative perspective to policy and programs, emphasizing the value of participatory and anticipatory approaches in exploring the futures of Philippine education. RIFE will also aim to promote future literacies in the university, a 21st-century skill defined by UNESCO as “the capacity to think about the future in different ways, to imagine, anticipate, and prepare for future possibilities and challenges.“

Supported by a progressive team of researchers, as well as by the university’s ecosystem of thinkers and technologies, RIFE will build on Ateneo’s commitment to helping shape education systems that are resilient, inclusive, and equipped to thrive in our fast- evolving world.