title: The Emergent Global Citizen
title: Cultivating Global Citizenship Identity and Engagement Within Soka Education
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Sherman, Paul
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2017

description: Current discourse on internationalization within the higher education
      sector has been largely fueled by pressures on colleges and universities
      to better prepare students for the effects of globalization. Higher
      education has increasingly begun to realize the importance of engaging
      students in global citizenship curricula to be more globally informed,
      prepared, responsible, and competent. This thesis presents a case study of
      Soka education’s philosophical and pedagogical approach to global
      citizenship education by examining the policies and practices of its
      university setting, Soka University Japan (SUJ). Past research by Stephen
      Reysen (Reysen &amp; Katzarska-Miller, 2013a) provides a theoretical
      model for analyzing the extent to which SUJ cultivates global citizenship
      identity and engagement. The mixed methods approach used in this study
      extends the largely quantitative research methodology used by Reysen and
      associates by drawing on the integration of quantitative and qualitative
      data to enable a more complete understanding of how global citizenship is
      cultivated in higher education. The present research contributes important
      knowledge to global citizenship scholarship and practice by adding support
      to the value of identifying antecedents and outcomes of global citizenship
      identification in the implementation of global citizenship education (GCE)
      programs in higher education. In examining Soka education’s approach to
      GCE, as perceived through the varied lenses of SUJ administrators,
      faculty, and students, the present research contributes to the discourse
      on the value of global citizenship education, and sheds light on critical
      approaches in higher education for cultivating and manifesting global
      citizenship identity and engagement. SUJ appears to robustly cultivate a
      global citizenship identity through its extensive curricular and
      co-curricular activities that focus on global awareness and understanding.
      Student global citizenship identity was shown to be highly influenced by
      SUJ’s normative environment that endorses global citizenship, and by the
      university’s practices in promoting global awareness. Furthermore,
      increased global citizenship identity was shown to strongly influence
      student endorsement of prosocial values and behaviour. Key findings from
      the study suggest that, 1) SUJ students experience global citizenship
      identity as an emergent process that evolves over the course of their
      university tenure, and continues to develop throughout their life, and 2)
      Soka education places considerable weight on the synergies that exist when
      imagining the potential impact on global social justice and wellbeing
      whilst actively engaged in creating value within one’s local environment.
      Based on the study’s findings, two key implications for educational
      practice are proposed. It is recommended that global citizenship education
      in colleges and universities integrate education about global citizenship
      with education for global citizenship, and that students’ global
      citizenship identity be strengthened through enriched institutional
      support for intercultural experiential learning activities.