An Ignatian Educator serves as a guide with and for students on their formational journeys in a Jesuit school. In collaboration with colleagues, the Ignatian Educator engages in ongoing personal, professional and religious development in order to sustain a vibrant community committed to the mission of Jesuit education.
Caring for the Individual:
• Helps students to be conscious of their well-rounded growth as men and women for others.
• Values students as individuals and treats them with empathy.
• Demonstrates the willingness and ability to listen, developing mutual trust with students and colleagues.
• Seeks to understand adolescent psychology/behavior and the world of the adolescent.
• Holds students, others and oneself accountable to reasonable academic and behavioral expectations.
Discerning Ways of Teaching and Learning:
• Collaborates with educators in and beyond the school community to enrich teaching and learning.
• Engages in ongoing development as an educator in light of new research, best practices, and social and cultural changes.
• Solicits feedback from student and colleagues on the teaching-learning process.
• Strives to be a critically reflective teacher.
• Evaluates curricular and instructional programs in light of department goals and the overall mission of the school.
Modeling Ignatian Pedagogy:
• Creates conditions and provides the opportunities for the continual interplay of experience, reflection and action.
• Helps students gain the skills to become life-long learners, including fostering creative and imaginative thinking.
• Uses a variety of assessments to evaluate a student’s holistic growth.
• Guides inquiry into subject matter for an awareness and a deeper understanding of significant issues and complex values that impels to action.
• Incorporates into the teaching-learning process the advances in technology, the expanding knowledge of how the brain works and the increasing awareness of students’ health/physical well-being.
Building Community and Fostering Collaboration:
• Works in partnership with Jesuit and lay colleagues in planning the educational and formational program to ensure the future of Jesuit education.
• Engages in honest and respectful dialogue with colleagues on important issues of Jesuit education and professional development.
• Earns the trust of others and draws upon the work and wisdom of others in decision-making.
• Partners with parents/guardians in achieving the school’s educational mission (as a Jesuit work and ministry).
• Recognizes and works to overcome prejudices that impede the building of an Ignatian learning community
. • Inspires students and colleagues to collaborate with others in seeking the greater good for all.
Animating the Ignatian Vision:
• Shares and helps to shape the school’s vision and mission.
• Ensures the continual renewal of the institution.
• Responds to Christ’s call to be a woman or man with and for others.
• Is knowledgeable of the foundational documents of Jesuit education.
• Values his/her work as a vocation to the ministry of teaching and works to promote a faith that does justice
• Is open to the experience of the Spiritual Exercises and engages in ongoing learning and development in the principles of Ignatian spirituality and pedagogy.
JEA