Jesuit Ethos Project Evaluation and Wrap Up

Following two years of intensive work with the national network of Jesuit schools in Ireland, developing and piloting a national quality framework for ethos in Jesuit schools, the project concluded in October ‘23 with a final wrap up and evaluation meeting.

The event was attended by representatives from each of the Jesuit schools involved in the initiative, including EQI Project Lead Dr. Shivaun O’Brien and Professor Gerry McNamara, as well as Dr. Jonathan Tiernan, Director of Jesuit Education.

Each school presented their Ethos Enrichment Plans, which resulted from a systematic Internal Ignatian Review Process that was designed by EQI and modelled on the school self-evaluation (SSE) process. A representative from each school engaged in sustained professional learning at the DCU Institute of Education, which took place over the 22/23 school year. This evidence-based model of professional learning for SSE, designed and extensively tested by Dr. Shivaun O'Brien, has proven to be extremely popular with teachers and school leaders, who claim that it has clarified for them how to confidently lead each step of the SSE process in their school. 

As part of the project, through consultation, EQI developed ethos quality standards and statements of effective practice for Jesuit schools in Ireland, based on the 10 Jesuit Global Identifiers. This was followed by the development of guidelines for an Ignatian Review process, which provides schools with a systematic approach to evaluating how they live their ethos. In addition to the guidelines, Dr O’Brien developed tools that schools can use to gather data for the review process from students, parents, staff, school leadership, and the Board of Management.

As part of the wrap-up event, participants provided feedback on their experience of the initiative, which has now been adopted as national policy for this network of schools. Participants stated that for the first time, Jesuit schools have a very clear outline of what their ethos means in practice for school leaders, boards of management, teachers, students, and parents. Of significance, the network has, for the first time in its history, a quality assurance system which aims to ensure that the Jesuit ethos is central to the operation of the schools and that school communities have a process whereby they can systematically review and plan improvements in this regard. The impact of the initiative is significant for the future development of Jesuit schools in Ireland. 

More details on the model of professional learning for School Self-Evaluation can be found HERE