Ikeda Research Institute for Soka Education
Issue 10/ March 18, 2023

Report onIkeda Studies in Education
PurposeThe Report on Ikeda Studies in Education iscompiled and circulated by the Ikeda ResearchInstitute for Soka Education (IRISE) of Soka
University. The Report serves as an informationsharing tool for scholars and researchers of this fieldof study, with the aim of facilitating on a global basis,
further advances in the research of and activities
relevant to Ikeda studies in education.

News Update
Spain
University of Alcalá’s IEDDAI in Spain holds“hybrid” symposium
On December 20, the University of Alcalá’sDaisaku Ikeda Research Institute for Education andDevelopment (IEDDAI) organized a symposium toexamine the 2022 Peace Proposal authored by Mr.
Ikeda.
The symposium was a “hybrid” event, withstudents majoring in a wide range of disciplines
from the University of Alcalá as well as the generalpublic, taking part both in-person and online. Theevent was moderated by IEDDAI Vice Director Dr.
Ana Belén García Varela and keynote address
delivered by Prof. Laura Formenti from theUniversity of Milan-Bicocca Department of HumanSciences for Education. In her address, Prof.
Formenti cited research revealing the process inwhich cross-cultural exchange and dialogue among
disparate cultures leads to the creation of newculture. She further underscored the value ofdialogue as a being pivotal to the building of
harmonious coexistence.
Q&A session with participants was held
following Prof. Formenti’s speech.

USA
DePul’s Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies inEducation holds special lecture series
On January 25, the DePaul University Institute for
Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education hosted its
annual Ikeda Lecture. More than 1,200 people fromaround the world joined to hear renowned peaceeducator Monisha Bajaj speak on this year’s themeof “Peace, Creative Coexistence, and Human Rights
Education.” Professor of International andMulticultural Education at the University of San
Francisco, Bajaj is a prominent author and scholar
in the fields of peace, human rights, migration,
racial justice, and education.
In his opening remarks, Institute director
Jason Goulah, indicated that this year’s lecturecommemorated Daisaku Ikeda’s four decades ofannual peace proposals. These commemorative
proposals “examine the causes, conditions, andconcrete modes of confronting the most urgent andpersistent challenges facing humanity and theplanet,” Goulah shared, “and, taken together, they
form a sweeping curriculum of global citizenship,value creation, and human education.”
Drawing on both Ikeda’s peace proposals
and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Bajaj organized her address around what she
identified as the four principles for Critical Global
Citizenship and Creative Coexistence: 1) Dignity,
2) Dialogue, 3) Empathy, and 4) Agency andSolidarity. Bajaj’s address was followed by a Q&A
session with attendees.
CanadaUniversity of Guelph-Humber’s Soka Education
Research Centre on Global Citizenship hosts
international symposium
On March 3, the Soka Education Research Centreon Global Citizenship (SERC-GC) of the
University of Guelph-Humber in Canada held its
second International Education Symposium, basedon theme “Peace, Dignity, and Equality.” Theobjective of the symposium was to provide aninternational forum for students to share their recent
research on Soka education, with their emphasis onUN SDG Target 4.7: Education for Sustainable
Development and Global Citizenship.
Following opening remarks from SERCGC Director Dr. Paul Sherman and University ofGuelph-Humber Vice-Provost Dr. Melanie SpenceAriemma, Prof. Maria Guajardo of Soka University
delivered the event’s keynote address. In herspeech, Prof. Guajardo pointed out that education
was crucial in developing global citizens that act
from the SDG’s spirit of leaving no one behindwhile advancing the causes of gender equality andwomen’s empowerment. Dr. Namrata Sharma,
adjunct professor at State University of New Yorkand researcher on international and comparativeeducation and global citizenship education,
provided the symposium’s closing words.
JapanSoka University Hosts Special Lecture byDirector of DePaul University Institute for
Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education
On December 20, 2022, Jason Goulah,professor and director of the DePaul University
Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education,
gave a special lecture to Soka University students in
an English-medium course on the educational
philosophies and practices of Daisaku Ikeda, Josei
Toda, and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi.
Prof. Goulah spoke about the Institute’s work anddevelopments in the international fields ofIkeda/Soka Studies in Education and ValueCreating Education for Global Citizenship. He also
engaged students in a discussion about key concepts
in the work of Makiguchi, Toda, and Ikeda,
highlighting the nuanced and important differencesin the Japanese terms each uses for shared concepts,
such as sekaimin (Makiguchi), chikyūminzoku shugi(Toda) and chikyūshimin and sekaishimin (Ikeda)
for the ethic of “global citizenship.”
Following the lecture, Prof. Goulah visitedthe Ikeda Research Institute for Soka Education,
where he met with other members of the IRISE
faculty.
TaiwanTaiwan’s Chinese Culture University holds
forum
On March 2, the Chinese Culture University (CCU)of Taiwan organized an international forum on theresearch of Daisaku Ikeda’s peace ideals. Some 400
students and faculty members attended the event
featuring presentations submitted by 16 researchers

from eight universities.
Established 20 years ago, the Daisaku
Ikeda Research Center of the CCU served as theorganizer of the forum, which had as its main theme
the UN’s SDGs. Drawing researchers from a broad
range of disciplines, the event examined the areasof commonality between Ikeda’s perspectives onhumanism and the principles reflected in the UN
SDGs to resolve the myriad of challenges that theworld faces today.

Daisaku Ikeda on Education
The Flowering of Creative Life Force（This is thetext of a speech delivered at Soka University’s
fourth entrance ceremony, held in the university’sCentral Gymnasium on April 18, 1974.）

This Issue’s Selected Writing
Sherman, P., & Boukydis, O. (2023). SGI Canada
Educators’ Perspectives on Creating Value in theTeaching and Learning Environment. Journal ofSocial, Humanity, and Education, 3(2), 133–146.
https://doi.org/10.35912/jshe.v3i2.1312
The Journal of Social, Humanity, and Education isa peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly publication.
The study was co-authored by Dr. Paul Sherman,
Director of the Soka Education Research Centre on
Global Citizenship at University of Guelph-Humberand Olivia Boukydis, MSW, PhD candidate andProf. of UofGH’s Community Social Services
program.
Link to the study: Journal of Social, Humanity, andEducation | Journal of Social, Humanity, and
Education (goodwoodpub.com)

Postscript⚫

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We welcome comments regarding thisReport as well as suggestions on specificmaterial that it should feature in futureissues. Contact: Ikeda Research Institute forSoka Education (IRISE) of Soka University(IRISE-access@soka.ac.jp)
This Report is issued on a bimonthly basis,
with the next release tentatively scheduled for
May 18, 2023.