Being a Lay Partner in Jesuit Higher Education in the Philippines : A Grounded Theory Application

In Jesuit universities, laypersons, who come from the same or different faith backgrounds or traditions, are considered as collaborators in mission. The Jesuits themselves support the contributions of the lay partners in realizing the mission of the Society of Jesus and recognize the important role that they play in education. This study aims to investigate and generate particular notions and understandings of lived experiences of being a lay partner in Jesuit universities in the Philippines, particularly those involved in higher education. Using the qualitative approach as introduced by grounded theorist Barney Glaser, the lay partners’ concept of being a partner, as lived in higher education, is generated systematically from the data collected in the field primarily through in-depth interviews, field notes and observations. Glaser’s constant comparative method of analysis of data is used going through the phases of open coding, theoretical coding, and selective coding from memoing to theoretical sampling to sorting and then writing. In this study, Glaser’s grounded theory as a methodology will provide a substantial insight into and articulation of the layperson’s actual experience of being a partner of the Jesuits in education. Such articulation provides a phenomenological approach or framework to an understanding of the meaning and core characteristics of JesuitLay partnership in Jesuit educational institution of higher learning in the country. This study is expected to provide a framework or model for lay partnership in academic institutions that have the same practice of having lay partners in mission. Grounded theory, Jesuit mission in higher education, lay partner, lived experience.  Church establishes and defines the vocation and mission of lay members of the Church. It says that regardless of status, “all laypersons are called and obliged to engage in the apostolate of being laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, the world, to serve the Kingdom of God” [1, par.16]. Christifideles Laici, a post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II, renews and reaffirms this same apostolic role of lay people in the Catholic Church saying that “[t]he call is a concern not only of Pastors, clergy, and men and women religious. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world” [2, par.2]. Catholic universities, “being born from the heart of the Church” [2, p.1] follow the same orientation and mission in affirming the apostolic roles that lay men and women could exercise in sharing with the works of the church on deepening faith and spirituality [3, par.25].  Badong-Badilla is with the De La Salle University, Philippines (email: janet.badilla@yahoo.com). In Jesuit Catholic universities, the laypersons’ sense of mission and passion is recognized. The Jesuits say that “the call they have received is a call shared by them all together, Jesuits and lay” [4, par. 3]. Lay-Jesuit collaboration is in fact among the 28 distinctive characteristics of Jesuit education (CJE) and a positive goal that a Jesuit school tries to achieve in response to the Second Vatican Council and to recent General Congregations of the Society of Jesus . In the Philippines, there are five Jesuit and Catholic universities that operate under the charism and educational principles of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. In a Jesuit university, the work in education is linked with Ignatian spirituality that inspires it [6, par. 13]. In managing human resources in a Jesuit school, the CJE document says that as much as the administration is able, “people chosen to join the educational community will be men and women capable of understanding its distinctive nature and of contributing to the implementation of characteristics that result from the Ignatian vision” [6, par. 122]. Laypersons in Jesuit universities, then, are expected to be able to share and carry on the kind of education that is based on the Ignatian tradition and spirituality. Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the former superior general of the Society of Jesus, in his closing session to the committee working on the document on the Characteristics of Jesuit Education, said that a Jesuit school, “if it is an authentic Jesuit school,” should manifest “Ignacianidad”: “...if our operation of the school flows out of the strengths drawn from our own specific charisma, if we emphasize our essential characteristics and our basic options then the education which our students receive should give them a certain "Ignacianidad” [5, par. 3]. For Arrupe, Ignacianidad or the spirituality inspired by St. Ignatius is “a logical consequence of the fact that Jesuit schools live and operate out of its own charism” [5, par. 3]. Not only do the Jesuits support the contributions of lay partners in realizing the Society’s mission, but more importantly, they also recognize the powerful role that the lay partners in higher education play in the growth and revitalization of the congregation itself in the present time [7]. In an article in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Fr. Howell writes: In a span of 50 years the Society of Jesus has been refounded. It is thriving. But it is thriving in a totally new and creative way. Its commitment to scholarship, for instance, is one of the strongest it has ever been, but carried out primarily through lay colleagues within the Jesuit university setting. Being a Lay Partner in Jesuit Higher Education in the Philippines: A Grounded Theory Application Janet B. Badong-Badilla T World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Educational and Pedagogical Sciences