One foot on the ground, another in the air – always on a journey to serve God. This is an image Fr Ross Jones SJ, President of Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview in Sydney, Australia uses to show what it means for students and teachers in a Jesuit school to be contemplatives-in-action.
And it is this image that Guy Masters, Riverview’s Adult Formation Co-Coordinator, offered to the participants of the recent Advanced Ignatian Teaching Programme (AITP) workshop in his talk, “A burning fire in the heart”. More than 20 Ignatian educators from across Asia Pacific gathered for the five days of reflection and sharing about Ignatian pedagogy held this year at Juniso Retreat House in Kamakura, Japan.
Already on its eighth year, the AITP has been conducted alternately in Sydney, Kamakura and Macau with administrators and teachers coming from different Jesuit schools in Asia Pacific. This year’s workshop was held from November 7 to 11 with participants from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines, and facilitated by a team from Riverview led by John Gilles, its Director of Religious Formation.
As in previous workshops, the participants were provided with many opportunities to get to know their colleagues, learn about one another’s diverse contexts and grow in appreciation of their shared mission in Jesuit education.
The experience was an opportunity to expand horizons. In the module on Information and Communications Technologies, for example, the participants were shown various tools they can use to embed technology into their teaching and learning. The inputs were meant to provoke the participants into reflecting on their own practice, and sharing their experiences, insights and challenges in Ignatian learning and teaching.
The participants were also introduced to Riverview’s “Companions Programme”, where veteran Ignatian teachers take new teachers under their wing and mentor them in the spirit of cura personalis. During the role play, the novice companions practised the art of “speaking little, but listening much”.
A high point of the workshop was the sharing from Indonesia and Hong Kong. The presentations elicited audible “oohs” and “aahs” of interest and agreement, and each presentation led to vigorous discussions of educational challenges and issues shared across countries and cultures.
The participants also visited Eiko Gakuen, a Jesuit high school in Kamakura that is among the top 10 in Japan. There they toured the campus and saw the school’s new and still unfinished building for classrooms. Even more interesting were the classroom observations, where they mingled with students during their Physics, English and Chemistry classes, and chatted with them about their life.
An unexpected highlight of the workshop was the barbecue that followed the Commissioning Mass. Everyone got involved in the cooking and the results showed that it was not a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth!
On the last day, Jennie Hickey, Education Delegate for the Australian Jesuit Province, and Fr Johnny Go SJ, Education Secretary of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, reminded the participants of the broader picture of Jesuit education. Hickey compared the work of Jesuit education to the sowing of seeds and Fr Go reminded the participants that they are all part of something greater.