Reflections on Soka Education & Philosophy

As an outgrowth of our June 2017 seminar convening many leaders in the burgeoning field of Soka (value-creating) education studies, we asked participants to offer follow up reflections based on the themes from the seminar about they felt most excited about.

Isabel Nunez: Cancer and Congratulations

Here, Isabel Nunez explores the paradoxical truth that often the best opportunities for value creation occur in times of hardship. Dr. Nunez is professor and chair of the Department of Educational Studies at Indiana University Purdue University-Fort Wayne.
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Jim Garrison: Why Soka Humanism is Unique — and Needed

In this piece Jim Garrison, professor of philosophy of education at Virginia Tech, explains why contemporary critiques of Western humanism do not pertain to Buddhist-based soka humanism, and why such humanism is equal to the challenges of our globalizing world.
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Julia Hrdina: Soka Education and One's Behavior As a Human Being

Julia Hrdina is a special education teacher and a doctoral student in educational leadership. Here she discusses why her research focuses on the human qualities that a teacher models when they strive to actually be a Soka educator.
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Mahi Takazawa: What the Soka Perspective Brings to Global Citizenship Education

Daisaku Ikeda has placed the qualities of wisdom, courage, and compassion at the heart of his vision of global citizenship education. Here, Mahi Takazawa explains why such idealistic framing is in fact of practical value in meeting the challenges of globalization.
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Nozomi Inukai: Value Creation and Teacher Professional Development

When school systems focus on evaluating teachers based quantitative, "objective" metrics, how can school leaders help teachers create value in the more subjective, relationship-oriented aspects of teaching and learning? Nozomi Inukai offers some ideas here.
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