Ignatian Pedagogy

• Context is about understanding who we are, where we come from, who others are, where others come from, and why things are the way they are, including the impact of social systems and scientific paradigms. All this together constitutes what the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador, professors at the University of Central America at the time of their deaths, called la realidad, or lived reality—a reality that includes experiences of injustice and oppression.
• Experience is about holistic learning that honors intellectual and affective experience. Affect and emotion are often overlooked in education, but they’re vital to the Ignatian paradigm. In fact, Ignatius himself frequently uses the Spanish verb sentir in his writings to refer to a “felt knowledge,” a way of knowing that attends to every aspect of human experience. 
• Reflection is first and foremost about finding meaning through critical engagement with la realidad and conceptual-intellectual understanding, but it also includes self-reflection. In the context of Jesuit pedagogy, students don’t just learn information: they consider the implications of what we know and how we know it, reflect on the ethical implications of scientific research and market capitalism, and assess the failings of history out of hope for a better world. Along the way, they also reflect on their own lives, and ideally they don’t just come to know things; they come to know themselves.
• Action puts context, experience, and reflection in service of the world. What our students learn has the potential to do good for the world. The Jesuits of El Salvador spoke of proyección social, or social projection. The university’s activity can’t be insular; it should be projected out to the world, especially the local community, in a spirit of Magis, or service of the greatest good.
• Evaluation asks critical questions, orienting our work toward self-actualization, humanization, and the flourishing of all things.
  

Finally, as a test case for re-rooting pedagogy in the principles of Jesuit education, let’s reconsider what may be the best-known part of the Jesuit vision: cura personalis. We hear a lot about cura personalis at SCU. And as with the 3 Cs, I think it’s easy to stay on the surface and think of cura personalis as something like being kind or being interested in students or being open to students’ needs and experiences or attending to their mental health.

Now, those are absolutely things we must do, and they are expressions of cura personalis. But more deeply, we commit ourselves to cura personalis because it actualizes the Ignatian vision of humanization, justice, transformation, and flourishing. In other words, just as SCU’s mission is rooted in an educational tradition that’s oriented toward the humanization of the world, cura personalis isn’t an end in itself; it’s a practice of conscious intentionality oriented toward the holistic humanization and flourishing of students and the world.

With that in mind, I’d invite us to think of cura personalis in a more holistic way: as an active, intentional dedication to the flourishing of others. If this is the framing, cura personalis is as much about being kind as it is about shaking students out of indifference, disrupting racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic views, challenging the prioritization of profit over the good of all. In this sense, cura personalis can also mean challenging students to see and engage the realities of injustice and suffering. It can mean making students uncomfortable: again, unsettling indifference. It can even mean having hard conversations when students struggle in our classes. If a student struggles to “do the math,” maybe we can listen carefully as they talk about their passions, help them see how they can, indeed, succeed in a course or—in light of the other gifts we see in them—help them to see other options that will enable them to pursue their passions. In sum, cura personalis nurtures authentic discernment.

Ultimately, then, cura personalis is about forming whole persons committed to serving the world. It’s a way of proceeding, a practice of conscious intentionality that also forms our students to practice that intentionality throughout their lives—with eyes and hearts open to the needs of the world. That’s the vision of education our Jesuit tradition sets before us.