Sharing and collaborating in all levels of education

The story of the creation of the Jesuit Global Network of Schools is the result of a joint effort of organisations around the world to spread the ideals of St. Ignatius

Fr. General Arrupe wrote in 1980:

“The secondary schools of the Society cannot remain in “splendid isolation…” It may well have been true in the past that some of our schools, because of their size and academic reputation, were ahead of their times and became pioneers for the city or the region, leading to a certain amount of isolation from the other schools. But this isolation, conscious or unconscious, wherever it exists, must disappear.”

Pedro Arrupe, SJ, Father General of the Society of Jesus (1965-1983) in “Our Schools Today and Tomorrow, #25”

This call was an inspiration for schools to start networking at all levels. Many provinces have created educational networks to help schools face challenges, multiply their apostolic energy, share best practices and work on common projects, important programs and initiatives that allow our schools to respond to the challenges that go beyond the local or national borders. In 2021 the schools from Africa and Madagascar created the newest Conference Network: JASBEAM (Association of Jesuit Basic and Secondary Education in Africa and Madagascar).

Another Conference Network, FLACSI (Latin American Federation of Jesuit Schools), has become a vital support for schools in the region and today it would be impossible to be a Jesuit school in Latin America without FLACSI. GC36 was right when analysing that collaboration implied cooperation through networks:

“Collaboration naturally leads to cooperate through networks. New technologies of communication open up forms of organization that facilitate collaboration. They make it possible to mobilize human and material resources in support of mission, and to go beyond national borders and the boundaries of Province and Regions.”

General Congregation 36 of the Society of Jesus, D. 2 #8

Fr. General Arturo Sosa has also invited us to realize that:

“Operating as a network allows for collaboration between the apostolic task of the Society and other institutions, opening up new horizons for service that go beyond what is traditional in a certain region or province, and mobilizing greater resources and possibilities in favor of the mission.”

Arturo Sosa, SJ, Father General of the Society of Jesus, at JESEDU (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in 2017

It is clear that “Serving Christ’s mission today means paying special attention to its global context. This context requires us to act as a universal body with a universal mission, realizing at the same time the radical diversity of our situations.” (GC 35, D2, #20)

Networks have contributed to the creation of new opportunities for creativity, renewal, and innovation that a school could never have dreamed of on its own. To enhance this, the Secretariat for Education (Secondary and Pre-secondary) and ICAJE (International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education) have designed a cycle of international gatherings that have been fundamental in building a culture of collaboration among our schools.

Beginning in 2012 at the International Colloquium of Secondary Jesuit Education organized by Boston College High School, gatherings have included SIPEI (2014), JESEDU-Rio (2017) and JESEDU-Global (2021). Furthermore, in 2015 Educate Magis was established “to nurture a vibrant online community connecting educators from our Jesuit Global Network of Schools” at the service of the Society’s mission.

Thus, when the Secretariat and ICAJE decided to officially launch the Jesuit Global Network of Schools (JGNS) on November 26, 2021, within the framework of the Ignatian Year and the 400th anniversary of St. John Berchmans’ death, the development seemed a natural result of this historic process. The JGNS expresses the collective global identity of the Jesuit and Companion secondary and pre-secondary schools and networks committed to the Jesuit mission of justice and reconciliation (with God, within Humanity and with Creation) in our world today. It also expresses the commitment to strengthen collaboration, discernment, and networking as part of our contemporary way of proceeding (GC 36).

When launching the network, Fr. General Sosa argued:

“The scale of some of today’s problems in the ecological, social, and technological fields requires a cooperation that goes beyond the local or regional level… The network that we are founding today is inspired by this desire to walk together and cooperate to better meet the challenges of our time. [The deepest desire is] to contribute meaningfully to the building of a hopeful future that brings people closer to God, leading us to care for our common home and to walk alongside the world’s discarded in a mission of reconciliation and justice.”

Father General of the Society of Jesus, Arturo Sosa Abascal SJ

There are ten founding members of the Jesuit Global Network of Schools:

• The Jesuit Schools Network (JSN) of Canada and the United States, established in 1936.
• The Federación Internacional de Fe y Alegría: Movement of Popular Education, 1955.
• The Jesuit Educational Association of South Asia (JEASA), 1961.
• The Secretariat for Education of the Society of Jesus in Rome, 1967.
• The Jesuit Education Commission of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP-Education), 1979.
• The Jesuit Refugee Service Education (JRS-Education), 1980.
• The Jesuit European Committee for Primary and Secondary Education (JECSE), 1986.
• The Latin American Federation of Jesuit Schools (FLACSI), 2001.
• Educate Magis: the online global community of Jesuit and Ignatian Educators, 2015.
• The Jesuit Association of Basic and Secondary Education in Africa and Madagascar (JASBEAM), 2021.

This post was originally published at Educate Magis