The Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE), founded in 1996 in order to deepen and enhance the quality of Waldorf education, engages in sustained dialogue with the wider educational-cultural community and supports research to serve a wide range of educators in their work with children and adolescents.
The Research Institute supports projects dealing with essential contemporary educational issues such as attention-related disorders, trends in adolescent development and innovations in the high school curriculum, learning expectations and assessment, computers in education, the role of art in education, and new ways to identify and address different learning styles.
As a sponsor of colloquia and conferences, the Research Institute brings together educators, psychologists, doctors, and social scientists for discussions on current issues related to education. We publish a Research Bulletin twice a year and prepare and distribute educational resources, including a growing collection of e-books and articles to help teachers in all aspects of their work. These are all available without charge at the Online Waldorf Library (OWL), which is overseen by the Research Institute.
As an initiative working on behalf of the Waldorf movement, the Research Institute receives support and guidance from the Pedagogical Section of the School of Spiritual Science and financial support through the Waldorf Schools Fund, the Waldorf Curriculum Fund, and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). The Research Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and accepts contributions through its annual giving campaign and special appeals.