Ethos governance in Irish Jesuit schools: reviewing practice through the Internal Ignatian Review

This article examines how Jesuit ethos can be supported, reviewed and quality assured within Jesuit schools. It focuses on the introduction and piloting of the Ethos Quality Framework for Jesuit Schools in Ireland, comprising ethos standards and statements of effective practice based on the Global Identifiers for Jesuit Schools, an Internal Ignatian Review Process and ethos governance structures. The research explores how participants in the pilot perceive the framework’s usefulness in supporting the enactment of Jesuit ethos and how they experienced the Internal Ignatian Review. The findings indicate that the framework provided a shared language, structure and renewed focus for work that had long been valued but not always systematically supported. Participants highlighted the importance of school and national leadership in embedding ethos in policy, governance, relationships and everyday practice. The article argues that ethos can be supported systematically through evidence-informed reflection, structured processes and sustained leadership, without reducing it to a narrow compliance exercise.