Frameworks that Guide our Work

The CSJ opened its doors in 2001. Our vision is collective liberation: a world in which we all live with dignity and determine our futures in just community. The CSJ transforms education and interrupts systems of oppression. Our work centers community knowledge, critical reflection, and the redistribution of resources. CSJ stands as a bold testament of the responsibility that institutions of higher education have to better the human condition of all people and to contribute resources most effectively towards the common good. As a 225-year old University in the country’s capital, Georgetown asserts itself in this research, teaching, and service work of the head, heart, and hands, collaborating with communities from the local and the global spheres.

These frameworks guide our work:

Catholic Social Teaching (CST)

CST is the Church’s body of doctrine on human dignity and the common good, a guide to building a just society through principles such as human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, and the preferential option for the poor. Faith is not only personal; it calls for active love and justice in the world.

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is an engaged, “learning by doing” approach where knowledge is created through direct, hands-on experience and reflection. Based on David Kolb’s cycle of concrete experience, observation, conceptualization, and active experimentation, it connects theory to real-world applications

Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP)

IPP is a Jesuit educational framework focused on forming students as whole persons who are competent, conscious, and compassionate individuals committed to justice and serving others, rooted in St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. It is a cycle: context ⟶ experience ⟶ reflection ⟶ action ⟶ evaluation.

Pathways to Public Service and Civic Engagement (Bridges to Social Justice)

This model describes a range of possibilities by which we can make a contribution to the common good. The pathways intersect and overlap, demonstrating the interdependent nature inherent in working toward the common good: community-engaged learning and research; community organizing and activism; direct service; philanthropy; policy and governance; social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.

Social Change Model of Leadership (SCML)

You can solve a problem and not change anything. SCML is a values-based framework in which leadership is a process, not a position, with social change as the ultimate goal. Its 7 values are: consciousness of self; congruence; commitment; collaboration; common purpose; controversy with civility; and citizenship.