History

The SALT institute traces its roots in the Education Hub, established by Fr. Jose Villarin SJ on 02 August 2016, appointing Fr. Johnny Go as Assistant to the President for Education Development, where he reiterated the objective of the university’s Education Hub:  “To bring together the University’s efforts in education reform in the country.  Its work shall include academic, research, and social outreach functions that we deem essential and strategic to education development.”

For the Academic Year 2016-17, we held discussions with stakeholders and possible partners both within and outside the university. Worth mentioning are the conversations on the Ateneo de Manila philosophy of education and brand of teaching with 28 selected faculty members from the Loyola Schools (8 February and 6 March 2017) and 20 master teachers from the Ateneo Grade School (11 October 2016) and Ateneo Junior and Senior High School (12 October 2016).

In response to the needs that surfaced in the consultations, from the 27th to 28th of July 2017, a brainstorming workshop on the proposed institute was conducted with twenty key leaders involved in the university’s teacher education and training in the various disciplines, where the participants reached a consensus on the nature of the Institute needed for our work in education. In attendance were three deans from the Loyola Schools (School of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, and School of Science and Engineering), five department chairs, four center directors (Formation Institute for Religious Education, the Ateneo Center for English Language Teaching, the Bulatao Psychology Center, and the Ateneo Teacher Center), and seven teacher educators/trainers.

In 2020, as the University shifted to online learning, the Ateneo SALT Institute played a key role in training the faculty in the Adaptive Design for Learning Framework. 

In 2021, the Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design was established, with the Ateneo SALT Institute adopted as one of its centers.