Profile of an Ignatian Educator
Teachers are guides with and for students on their journey

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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, an Ignatian Educator:

  • 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, an Ignatian Educator:

  • 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, an Ignatian Educator:

  • 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, an Ignatian Educator:

  • 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, an Ignatian Educator:

  • 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.