On 11 May 2024, a group of faculty members of the Jezuickie Centrum Edukacji in Nowy Sącz, Poland, gathered on a Saturday to talk about the Learning by Refraction Approach to Ignatian Pedagogy.
Fr. Johnny Go SJ, one of the authors of the book Learning by Refraction, was in town for a meeting with the JECSE (Jesuit Education Committee for Secondary Education) Director, Ms. Agnieszka Baran and her team.
Fr. Pawel Broźyniak SJ, the School Director, invited Fr. Go to visit the school and to meet with the faculty and discuss Ignatian Pedagogy with them.
Fr. Pawel, who is also the Education Delegate of the North and South Polish Province, had been instrumental in the translation of the book into Polish some years ago. Every faculty member had actually already been furnished a copy of Learning by Refraction to introduce them to the IPP, so this was a timely opportunity for those most interested to have a conversation about implementing Ignatian Pedagogy in their own teaching practice.
The conversation focused not only on Ignatian pedagogy, but also covered the practice and teaching of discernment. Fr. Johnny found the teachers quite engaged and participative in the discussions—an encouraging sign of their enthusiasm about strengthening their school’s Ignatian identity through this pedagogy.
The discussion also included the many challenges that educators face today including the massive impact of technology not only on the way we work and live, but also the way we learn and think.
By the end of the discussion, the group agreed that Ignatian Pedagogy—specifically, the Learning by Refraction approach to it—could be one way of addressing these important issues. Just as importantly, the teachers felt more inspired to find more ways of improving their implementation of this distinctive brand of learning and teaching in their classrooms.
