Back in December 2020, the Secretariat for Education in collaboration with Educate Magis made available the infographic « An Integrated (Holistic) Perspective » as a printable and interactive tool. Its aim is to help Jesuit schools see how the most important recent documents that shape Jesuit Education today: Human Excellence – 2015, The JESEDU-Rio Action Statement – 2017, The Universal Apostolic Preferences – 2019 – 2029, and Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century – 2019 are interlinked and serve as a comprehensive response to the mission of the Society of Jesus as it has been defined by GC36: « A Mission of Reconciliation and Justice with God, within Humanity and with Creation. »

« All of these documents describe our contemporary understanding of the goals and characteristics of our schools today. Each one of them is a door that invites us to work together and engage them all. Each school can enter through a different door but the infographic wants to point out that the entering door will lead us to the other rooms if we really want to attain the education of the whole person that we all want for the new generations. » Fr. Jose Mesa SJ. Introductory Video

Since its launch, many schools have undertaken the Secretariat’s invitation to use the « An Integrated (Holistic) Perspective » infographic to study, reflect on, and discern how the global identifiers are present and practiced in the school, and to determine which global identifiers the school needs to implement or work on further.

« The infographic is an invitation both to dream and to « walk the talk ».  It is to be understood as a platform that reflects the current state of the ongoing process of discernment necessary to be able to respond to the rapidly changing context we live in. In this sense the graphic, similar to A Living Tradition, responds “to the acceleration of change we are experiencing today and, therefore… invites the educators in our schools to enrich it with their reflections, experiences and contributions”. (Fr. General Sosa, Letter introducing the document A Living Tradition, November 5th, 2019). Fr. Jose Mesa SJ. An Integrated Perspective of Jesuit Education Today

At our Educate Magis headquarters in Galway, we also ventured on this reflective journey. It was a journey that took us many months and discernment sessions, through which we reflected on the purpose of each area offered across our community’s platform and studied each Global Identifier in the « A Living Tradition » document.

This process guided us towards an internal audit of each area of the platform, with the aim of defining the most directly applicable global identifier or identifiers.  The results of this process served as the basis for the visual conceptualization of the integration of the « An Integrated (Holistic) Perspective » graphic and its Global identifiers into the Educate Magis platform, a visual integration that will soon be unveiled! The integration will display the most directly applicable Global identifiers on the main pages of our platform, with a link to the citations related to each selected global identifier.

In the meantime, we would like to share some brief reflections on our experience in going through this process.

« Having read through and reflected on each of the 10 global Identifiers I discovered new nuances that go well beyond the headings. I also spotted interesting connections between them that I haven’t noticed beforehand. For example, how life-long learning is not only part of Global Identifier #10 but runs through most of the identifiers, and it refers to intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual learning and formation. Similarly, how networking and collaboration are returning patterns that permeate several identifiers. Furthermore, the Integrated (Holistic) Perspective Infographic acts both as a map and a compass in helping to find my way through the different aspects and documents of Jesuit Education and challenges me to continue discovering new connections. » – Gellert

« Analysis like this allows us to see that there is more to each Global Identifier than only broad titles. It was worthwhile studying each Global Identifier and reflecting on them keeping in mind certain offerings available on our platform. The analysis of some areas proved to be more complex than others, so it was helpful to keep our Mission in mind throughout the process, »to nurture a vibrant online community connecting educators from our Jesuit Global Network of Schools ».  I am excited that we will soon reveal the fruits of this constructive reflective process, which will be visible on our platform! I would encourage everyone in your school communities to go through this process of reflection. It is an opportunity to take a break from the day to day, and remember why we value what we do, in my case my collaboration as a member of our wonderful community of Educate Magis , and how we can continue to make our Mission tangible. Finally, it was fascinating to see how the global identifiers connect in many ways with our Mission at Educate Magis ». – Karina

« Studying the Global Identifiers to select the appropriate Identifiers for the areas of Faith Formation, Ignatian Retreats and Reflections, Ignatian Spirituality Resources, Prayers and Reflections, and Global Gatherings, it was a difficult task for me, to identify the Global Identifiers. I learned that all the Global Identifiers are inter-related, and in a way overlapping too. All of the Global Identifiers have some elements to contribute to the areas of my study. Global Identifier #1 is the foundation. Faith formation, Ignatian Spirituality, Prayer resources, etc. are firmly rooted in the 1st Global Identifier. To actualise these foundational goals we have Global Colloquiums, and Global Gatherings. The additional help of these Global events help us to have Global interconnectedness and collaboration. Jesuit mission is always universal and Global gatherings foster such a vision and mission in education. Considering these points in mind, I selected the quotes from the Global Identifiers. » – Sunny

« The analysis on Global Identifiers we made in each of our main pages areas, was a very enriching opportunity to connect mentally and spiritually with the purpose of our mission in Educate Magis, as provided a deep view in how we can best help our educators in serving students and indeed entire schools and communities. The Global Citizenship and Global Community pages truly recognise and celebrate diversity. This study allow us to see that the global identifiers are clear indicators of how we should encourage through our services and website layout the true spirit of Jesuit Education by overcoming prejudices and work together to build a global vision and sense of global citizenship through the promotion and supporting of programs, projects and collaborations between schools. » – Valentina