University of Guelph-Humber

Soka Education Research Initiative on Global Citizenship (SERI-GC)
Inaugural Annual Lecture: The Presence and Role of Dialogue in Soka Education

Featuring Dr. Jason Goulah, DePaul University, Chicago

Location: GH 111

Emerging as a radical response to Japan’s militarist education system of wartime indoctrination, Soka, or “value-creating,” approaches have today become one of Japan’s most globally recognized and practiced. Dr. Goulah’s talk examines the presence and role of dialogue in the Soka heritage of education, from Tsunesaburo Makiguchi to Daisaku Ikeda and the Soka schools Ikeda founded in Asia and the Americas. The talk concludes with analysis of aspects of Ikeda’s enacted philosophy that is inspiring Soka-oriented educators to valorize dialogue. Two central ideas are that it is through encounters with others, especially dialogical, that we become fully human, and that the ego-transcending growth encouraged by dialogue provides a basis for lasting, widespread peace in our world.

To register for this lecture click here.