From the Japanese word meaning "to create value," this book presents a fresh perspective on the question of the ultimate purpose of education. Mixing American pragmatism and the Buddhist philosophy of respect for all life, the goal of Soka education is the lifelong happiness of the learner. Rather than offering practical classroom techniques, this book speaks to the emotional heart of both the teacher and the student. With input from philosophers and activists from several cultures, it advances the conviction that the true purpose of education is to create a peaceful world and to develop the individual character of each student in order to achieve that goal. This revised edition contains four new chapters that further elaborate on how to unlock self-motivated learning and how to empower the learner to make a difference in their communities and the world.

Daisaku Ikeda (b. 1928) is an international Buddhist leader, peacebuilder, prolific author, and the founder of the secular Soka kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, women’s college and universities in seven countries across Asia and the Americas. He has emerged as an important educational philosopher and practitioner whose perspectives on dialogue, value-creation (soka), global citizenship, and the deep inner transformation he calls "human revolution" have informed the curriculum and instruction of thousands of teachers not only at the Soka schools, but also at numerous non-Soka schools and universities around the world. This volume brings together, for the first time in English, international scholars’ empirical and theoretical analyses of Ikeda’s contributions to language and education in a global context. This book was awarded the Critics Choice Book Award by the American Educational Studies Association in 2015. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies.

Soka Gakkai is Japan’s largest and most influential new religious organization: It claims more than 8 million Japanese households and close to 2 million members in 192 countries and territories. The religion is best known for its affiliated political party, Komeito (the Clean Government Party), which comprises part of the ruling coalition in Japan’s National Diet, and it exerts considerable influence in education, media, finance, and other key areas. Levi McLaughlin’s comprehensive account of Soka Gakkai draws on nearly two decades of archival research and non-member fieldwork to account for its institutional development beyond Buddhism and suggest how we should understand the activities and dispositions of its adherents. McLaughlin explores the group’s Nichiren Buddhist origins and turns to insights from religion, political science, anthropology, and cultural studies to characterize Soka Gakkai as mimetic of the nation-state. Ethnographic vignettes combine with historical evidence to demonstrate ways Soka Gakkai’s twin Buddhist and modern humanist legacies inform the organization’s mimesis of the modern Japan in which the group took shape. To make this argument, McLaughlin analyzes Gakkai sources heretofore untreated in English-language scholarship; provides a close reading of the serial novel The Human Revolution, which serves the Gakkai as both history and de facto scripture; identifies ways episodes from members’ lives form new chapters in its growing canon; and contributes to discussions of religion and gender as he chronicles the lives of members who simultaneously reaffirm generational transmission of Gakkai devotion as they pose challenges for the organization’s future. Readers looking for analyses of the nation-state and strategies for understanding New Religions and modern Buddhism will find Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution to be an especially thought-provoking study that offers widely applicable theoretical models.

Three experts collaborate in this passionate and rewarding dialogue on the legacy of the great American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859 1952). Focused on growth and the creation of value within the context of real life, Dewey s pragmatic philosophy shares much with humanistic Buddhism. These similarities, which arise throughout the book, add richness to a dialogue already overflowing with faith in our capacity to find common ground and expand human well being in our rapidly globalizing world. For Dewey, individual and social potential alike are unlimited. Readers will come away ready to embrace rather than fear the increasing complexity of our world."

This new selection of writings on education—many previously published under the title Soka Education—comes from some five decades of works by Buddhist philosopher and founder of the Soka schools system, Daisaku Ikeda. From educational proposals and university lectures to personal essays, the writings not only delve into the meaning of soka (value-creating) education but offer a hopeful vision of the power of education to bring happiness to the individual and peace to the world.

Students, parents, and educators at all levels are increasingly frustrated, demoralized, burned out, and discontented with education and schooling today. At no previous time has it been more necessary to revitalize hope in the promise of education or to reestablish joy in teaching and learning than the current moment. In this timely and inspirational volume, authors from diverse disciplines consider and affirm the many places across curriculum and context where hope and joy are or can be strong and vibrant. Drawing on the life-affirming ideals of renowned education philosopher and school founder Daisaku Ikeda, Hope and Joy in Education will reenergize educational research, theory, and practice. Featuring contributions from such luminaries as Theodorea Berry, Cynthia Dillard, Walter Gershon, Francyne Huckaby, Johnny Lupinacci, and Anita Patterson, this book reminds readers that the classroom is still a magical space, brimming with the brilliant and creative energy of young people. “This is a necessary text at a necessary time if we are to revitalize hope in the promise of education.” —From the Foreword by Cynthia B. Dillard, University of Georgia “A beacon of light toward desirable collective futurities in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and vulnerability.” —Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University “These essays are just what we need in these turbulent, uncertain times: a thoughtful focus on hope and joy as the path to educating for a more just, equitable, relational, and peaceful state of being.” —Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Miami University “This insightful book urges educators to center hope and joy in our work—not by turning away from the despair of the moment, but by fostering dialogue, seeking connection, and always remembering that the true aim of education for teachers and students alike is to become more fully human.” —Gregory Michie, Chicago public school teacher

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi is best known as the founder of Soka Gakkai, the association of lay members of the Nichiren Shoshu sect of Buddhism that has grown to number more than ten million followers throughout the world, including some 200,000 Nichiren Shoshu of America adherents in the United States. But Makiguchi had spent a lifetime as an educator, developing his "value creating" educationai philosophy, before he founded Soka Gakkai. In the 1930s he proposed educational reforms that were fully as revolutionary as those advanced by his American counterpart John Dewey. He is one of Japan's most significant yet perhaps least recognized educators. Makiguchi said that Japan's educational system was haphazard, unplanned, fragmented, and useless. Convinced that the pursuit and creation of values are the ultimate purpose of life, he proposed a "value creating" educational system. Defining the three greatest values in life as goodness, beauty, and gain, Makiguchi held that through education people should increase their ability to create values and thus find happiness.

The Soka Gakkai Revolution has revived Buddhism in the lives of millions of Japanese, changed the course of Japanese government, brought creative new ideas to the field of education, and impacted the worlds of culture and art. Metraux has written a comprehensive work on this integral actor in Japanese society and politics that analyzes the Soka Gakkai's rise to political power, its participation in the Hosokawa coalition cabinet, its highly publicized split from Nichiren Shoshu, and its plans to transform Japanese society. Also included is a secondary study of the Soka Gakkai movement in the United States. Contents: The Soka Gakkai Revolution: Blueprint for a New Society; The Soka Gakkai: History and Doctrines; The Soka Gakkai and Politics; The Dispute between the Soka Gakkai and the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood; The Soka Gakkai's Revolutionary Approach to Education; The Soka Gakkai Abroad; Ikeda Daisaku: Religious Savior or Diabolical Dictator? The Significance of the Soka Gakkai.

This new selection of writings on education—many previously published under the title Soka Education—comes from some five decades of works by Buddhist philosopher and founder of the Soka schools system, Daisaku Ikeda. From educational proposals and university lectures to personal essays, the writings not only delve into the meaning of soka (value-creating) education but offer a hopeful vision of the power of education to bring happiness to the individual and peace to the world.

This book chronicles the revolution in STEM teaching and learning that has arisen from a convergence of educational research, emerging technologies, and innovative ways of structuring both the physical space and classroom activities in STEM higher education. Beginning with a historical overview of US higher education and an overview of diversity in STEM in the US, the book sets a context in which our present-day innovation in science and technology urgently needs to provide more diversity and inclusion within STEM fields. Research-validated pedagogies using active learning and new types of research-based curriculum is transforming how physics, biology and other fields are taught in leading universities, and the book gives profiles of leading innovators in science education and examples of exciting new research-based courses taking root in US institutions. The book includes interviews with leading scientists and educators, case studies of new courses and new institutions, and descriptions of site visits where new trends in 21st STEM education are being developed. The book also takes the reader into innovative learning environments in engineering where students are empowered by emerging technologies to develop new creative capacity in their STEM education, through new centers for design thinking and liberal arts-based engineering. Equally innovative are new conceptual frameworks for course design and learning, and the book explores the concepts of Scientific Teaching, Backward Course Design, Threshold Concepts and Learning Taxonomies in a systematic way with examples from diverse scientific fields. Finally, the book takes the reader inside the leading centers for online education, including Udacity, Coursera and EdX, interviews the leaders and founders of MOOC technology, and gives a sense of how online education is evolving and what this means for STEM education. This book provides a broad and deep exploration into the historical context of science education and into some of the cutting-edge innovations that are reshaping how leading universities teach science and engineering. The emergence of exponentially advancing technologies such as synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and materials sciences has been described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the book explores how these technologies will shape our future will bring a transformation of STEM curriculum that can help students solve many the most urgent problems facing our world and society.