University of Guelph-Humber

Dialogue & Research

The members of SERC-GC meet on a routine basis throughout the Fall and Winter semesters to dialogue about Soka education and global citizenship, and to develop ideas for conducting research, with potential for conference presentation and journal publication.

The initial research project of SERC-GC was a study of higher education teacher perspectives on experiential learning, framed within the Soka (value creating) education theory. Working within the framework of Makiguchi’s Theory of Value, the concepts of beauty, gain, and good were explored in relation to teachers’ perceived value and outcomes of experiential learning courses delivered at UofGH. The research results were presented by the SERC-GC students at Soka University of America’s 2019 Soka Education conference, and by SERC-GC faculty members at the University of Guelph’s Perspectives on Experiential Learning conference (April 2019) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities Global Citizenship conference (October 2019).

The second phase of this research project explored higher education student perspectives on experiential learning framed within Soka education theory. The research results were presented by the SERC-GC students at Soka University of America’s 2020 Soka Education conference.

Both research studies are presented in Sherman, P., & Boukydis, O. (2020). Framing Undergraduate Perspectives on Experiential Learning Within Soka Education Theory. IAFOR Journal of Education: Undergraduate Education, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.8.3.05

Our third project conducted in 2020 - 2021 explored perspectives and experiences of educators practicing soka (value-creating) pedagogy. Our main research question was, how do educators apply value creating pedagogy in their teaching and learning environment? Results of this study are now available. This research is presented in Sherman, P., & Boukydis, O. (2023). SGI Canada Educators’ Perspectives on Creating Value in the Teaching and Learning Environment. Journal of Social, Humanity, and Education, 3(2), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.35912/jshe.v3i2.1312

SERC-GC’s fourth research project, completed in 2022, is a meta-synthesis study examining how Daisaku Ikeda’s conceptualization of global citizenship vis-à-vis characteristics such as interconnectedness, difference, and empathy, aligns with contemporary academic literature on global citizenship. The study is published as Sherman, P., & Boukydis, O. (2023). Situating Daisaku Ikeda’s essential elements of global citizenship within contemporary scholarship: a qualitative meta- synthesis.
International  Journal of Development Education and Global Learning,15(1). DOI: 10.14324/IJDEGL.15.1.04

Our fifth and sixth research projects, conducted in 2022 and 2023 involve a collaborative online intercultural learning exchange initiative between SERC-GC’s research assistants and the Learning Cluster students at Soka Kansai High School (Japan). The students study and research together various themes of global importance such as the United Nations’ SDGs and nuclear disarmament. Final projects are presented at SERC-GC’s annual international education symposium.