Daisaku Ikeda’s Curriculum of Soka Education: Creating Value Through Dialogue, Global Citizenship, and “Human Education” in the Mentor–Disciple Relationship

Abstract

This essay review focuses on Daisaku Ikeda (b. 1928) and his curriculum of Soka, or value‐creating, education present in two works: Choose Life: A Dialogue (Toynbee & Ikeda, 1976) and Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship (Ikeda, 1996b). In reviewing these works, the authors trace the biographical roots of Ikeda’s educational philosophy to his encounter with Josei Toda (1900–1958) and to the overwhelming concerns he has grappled with since childhood about the forces that ravaged his youth and family life; the authors also examine Ikeda’s concept of value‐creating education relative to value‐creating pedagogy theorized by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1981–1988) and suggest that Ikeda’s curriculum of Soka education is comprised of three key principles that also serve as its processes and goals—dialogue, global citizenship, and “human education” in the mentor–disciple relationship. The authors conclude with the implications of Ikeda’s curriculum of Soka education and of the two reviewed works.

Notes

We thank Dennis Thiessen, Rubén Gaztambide‐Fernández, Andrew Gebert, Jim Garrison, Ming Fang He, Gonzalo Obelleiro, and Monte Joffee for their thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions. Any remaining errors are the authors’ own.

Notes

1 The Soka schools network includes Soka University (1971, Tokyo), Soka Women’s College (1985, Tokyo), Soka University of America (1987, Calabasas; 2001, Aliso Viejo), Soka Junior and Senior High Schools (1968, Tokyo), Kansai Soka Junior and Senior High Schools (1973, Osaka), Tokyo Soka Elementary School (1978), Sapporo Soka Kindergarten (1976), Kansai Soka Elementary School (1982, Osaka), Hong Kong Soka Kindergarten (1992), Malaysia Soka Kindergarten (1995), Singapore Soka Kindergarten (1993), Brazil Soka Kindergarten and Elementary School (2001), and Soka Happiness Kindergarten of South Korea (2008).

2 Takao Ito is an alumnus of Kansai Soka High School and of Soka University, where he is currently a faculty member. He is a researcher in the Soka Education Research Institute at Soka University and edits Soka Kyoiku, a journal focused on value‐creating education. Jason Goulah is a Western scholar of Ikeda’s educational philosophy and has conducted research on value‐creating education at Soka University, Soka Women’s College, Brazil Soka schools, and with students from Soka University of America and non‐Soka schools.

3 We used both the English and Japanese versions of Ikeda’s works, but throughout we reference only English translations if they are available and, for our use, complete. We compare (cf.) texts when nuanced differences relevant to our argument exist.

4 For proposals from 2000–2011, visit http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/peacebuild/peace‐proposals/pp2011.html.

5 In addition to Ikeda’s comparison of Dewey’s and Makiguchi’s philosophies in Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship, he compares their work more thoroughly in John Dewey and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi: Confluences of Thought and Action (2010c, pp. 1–32), arguing, for example, that “Makiguchi’s interest in geography, in particular, the interaction between impact of geographical features and human activities, finds a parallel in Dewey’s own thought” (Ikeda, 2010c, p. 4). He also notes that Makiguchi’s theory of “humanitarian competition” ( jindoteki kyoso) “echoes Dewey’s call for ‘drawing out and composing into a harmonious whole the best, the most characteristic which each contributing race and people has to offer” (p. 7). Other scholars have also examined the similarities between Dewey’s and Makiguchi’s philosophies (e.g., Hickman, Garrison, & Ikeda, 2009–2011; Goulah, 2010b; Ito, 2007a). For example, at the international symposium “Reuniting Parker, Dewey, Makiguchi and Ikeda: Education for Community and Citizenship across Language and Culture” referenced in our conclusion, Garrison noted that Makiguchi, Ikeda and Dewey were all religious humanists who address our spiritual crisis in ways that remain immensely meaningful as we struggle to overcome it; moreover, he argued these three, although in different ways, viewed being an educator as a religious calling. At the same symposium, Hickman noted that two of the many themes common to the pedagogies of Dewey, Makiguchi, and Ikeda are the emphasis on context and the concern that quantification in and of education be restricted to its proper role. Hickman has also likened value‐creation to growth in Deweyan philosophy (personal communication, n.d.). It is also worth noting that Ikeda begins his dialogue with Dewey scholars Larry Hickman and Jim Garrison in a section titled, “It Is in Dialogue That Real Value Creation Exists,” by quoting the following from Dewey’s 90th birthday speech: “Democracy begins from dialogue” (Hickman, Garrison, & Ikeda, 2009, p. 53).

6 Although Ikeda lists these curricular proposals only in brief here, they echo the curricular proposals outlined in more depth in his 1987 and 1988 UN peace proposals (see Ikeda, 1999, pp. 294–295).

7 Students at Soka Women’s College presented research findings on sustainability projects that create value in Africa. Students in Brazil Soka schools developed community‐based recycling initiatives based on their classroom lessons and created rooftop gardens; many of the students take home and eat the vegetables they grew.

8 For a complete list visit http://www.daisakuikeda.org/sub/resources/records/degree/by‐date‐order.html.