Thesis advisor: Thomas H. Groome / The research question of the dissertation is: How to form partners in education to share in the common mission of Jesuit educational institutions? I craft the answer to this question by studying the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. I claim an analogy between the central dynamic of the thirty-day retreat, whose guidelines are in the book of the Spiritual Exercises, and four operative principles that ought to constitute the structure of formation programs for Jesuit schools' faculty and staff in the educational tradition, identity and mission of the Society of Jesus. The four operative principles are discernment, desire, diakonia and decision. Formation that aims at training partners in education to share in the common mission of Jesuit schools happens best when these four operative principles inform the curriculum design and when they interplay during the actual process of forming the educators who work in Jesuit schools. Discernment is the under-girding principle because the Society of Jesus is engaged in education to form women and men who can discern, that is to say, who can decide from their in-depth values, convictions and aspirations. Desire is the operative principle of the first movement of the Spiritual Exercises, which corresponds to the first week of the retreat. Diakonia--the Greek word for service--draws upon the second movement of the Exercises, which expands beyond the second week of the retreat into the third and fourth ones. This second movement is unified by the idea of being inspired by Jesus Christ or from "outside" of the retreatants. Lastly, decision is the third movement of the Spiritual Exercises. Ignatius invites the exercitants to make a personal choice of a state of life at the core of the second week of the retreat. But decision as operative principle accompanies the retreatants until the end of their thirty-day experience. The doctoral program of the Boston College Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry is in theology and education. The dissertation is an academic exercise in the field of pastoral or practical theology at the intersection of education, theology and the means of church education inspired by the Spiritual Exercises. Therefore, besides the analogical reading of Ignatius's work, my method consists of putting the aforementioned operative principles in conversation with a select review of literature in the fields of transformative and reflective adult education, developmental psychology, responsible and collaborative leadership, pastoral ministry and educational change. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.