Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda Across Curriculum and Context
For US orders and exam copies: Teachers College Press
For Canada orders: University of Toronto Press
For all other international orders: Eurospan Bookstore
ISBN: 978-0-8077-6510-4
Students, parents, and educators are increasingly frustrated, demoralized, burned out, and discontented with education and schooling today. At no time has it been more necessary to revitalize hope in the promise of education or to reestablish joy in teaching and learning. 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. Grounded in 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. Ultimately, the book reminds readers that the classroom is still a magical space, brimming with the brilliant and creative energy of young people.
Book Features
- Illustrates the power of Daisaku Ikeda’s ideas to confront the challenging societal contexts and conditions that schools and educators face day in and day out.
- Shares narratives that employ critical and antiracist lenses to examine the authors’ own activist work with different populations across multiple contexts.
- Considers Daisaku Ikeda’s contributions relative to established and emerging trends in education, including the Deweyan tradition, ecojustice education, critical race feminism, and others.
- Provides cross-cultural examples and insights bolstering the current resurgence of humanistic, qualitative aspects of teaching and learning.
- Shows how the essential qualities of hope and joy fortify fields and themes that have been squeezed out by political agendas and standardized testing.
“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.”
—Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Miami University
“How do we go on hoping after witnessing trauma? Hope and Joy in Education grapples with that question, one of special urgency in our post–George Floyd moment.”
—Awad Ibrahim, University of Ottawa
“This insightful book urges educators to center hope and joy in our work by fostering dialogue, seeking connection, and remembering that the true aim of education is to become more fully human.”
—Gregory Michie, Chicago public school teacher, and author, Holler If You Hear Me
Isabel Nuñez is professor of educational studies and director of the School of Education at Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Jason Goulah is professor of bilingual-bicultural education and director of the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University in Chicago.
Foreword
Cynthia Dillard
Preface/Acknowledgments
Isabel Nuñez and Jason Goulah
Introduction: Daisaku Ikeda, and Hope and Joy in Education
Jason Goulah
PART I: CURRICULUM AND TEACHING FOR HOPE AND JOY
1. Joy as Sustenance: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda and the Lotus Sutra to Nourish Vocation
Isabel Nuñez
2. Determining to be Hopeful in Hopeless Times
Nozomi Inukai and Michio Okamura
3. “Hope is a Decision”: Pedagogical Acts Towards the Collective Commitment to Remake the World
Christopher Hall, Patricia Krueger-Henney, Nina Kunimoto, and Zeena Zakharia
4. A Fundamental Force at the Edge of the Formation of Society
M. Francyne Huckaby
5. Building a Change-focused Community with Practitioners as a Source of Hope
Allison Mattheis
6. Imparting Hope and Inspiring Joy: Practicing Value-Creative Dialogue in Educational Leadership
Melissa Bradford
PART II: HOPE AND JOY IN AESTHETIC AND EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
7. Restoring Hope for the Humanities: Daisaku Ikeda, Intercultural Study, and College Classroom Experience
Anita Patterson
8. Finding Hope and Joy in Curriculum Theory through Critical Race Feminism
Theodorea Regina Berry
9. Finding Hope and Joy through Daisaku Ikeda: The Rehabilitation of a Doctoral Candidate
Jayna McQueen Baker
10. Social Emotional Learning and Value-Creating Education: Synergistic Possibilities for Cultivating Hope and Joy in Higher Education
Deborah Donahue-Keegan
11. The Poetic Mind: The Key to Creating Hope and Joy in Education
Ritsuko Rita
12. Human Rights Education as a Resource for Self and Collective Transformation
Elora Chowdhury
PART III: SEEKING INNER JOY AND OUTER HOPE
13. Hope, Joy, and the Greater Self at the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue
Mitch Bogen
14. Value Creation and the Revitalization of Dependency as a Core Goal of Ecocritical Education
Johnny Lupinacci
15. Dancing with Hope
Walter Gershon
16. A Curriculum of Becoming
D. Joe Ohlinger
17. Hope in Remembrance of a Life Well Lived
Sandra Vanderbilt
18. Finding Hope and Joy in Life and Death: Daisaku Ikeda’s Philosophy of Ningen Kyōiku (Human Education)
Jason Goulah
Conclusion: Hope and Joy, Trust and Faith, and Poison as Medicine
Isabel Nuñez
About the Contributors
Index
Excerpt from the Introduction by Jason Goulah:
“It cannot be overstated that hope and joy pervade Ikeda’s philosophy and undergird his commitments and efforts. His collected writings abound with references to fostering hope and joy in all aspects of life. This is especially so for educators and students as they engage with global issues and the many sources of deep suffering common to all humanity. For Ikeda, hope is not passive or wishful thinking. It is engaged and determined. It is to gaze far into the future and desire something deeply and intensely. When we do so, Ikeda assures us… everything begins to move in the direction that we desire…
“Moreover, he couples hope with the ability to savor ‘joy at all times’ as essential characteristics of a truly expansive life. ‘Nothing is stronger than hope,’ he writes. ‘People who never lose hope, no matter what happens, are truly happy’. They are filled with an upsurge of energy and an almost indestructible joy. In this sense, hope and joy are most authentic and enduring when they come from within, a principle that is as empowering and compassionate as it is strict and uncompromising. But such hope-filled joy is not solitary. It is shared, dialogic, and interdependent.” (p.xxiv-xxv)
Excerpt from the Conclusion by Isabel Nuñez:
“Jason and I had no way of knowing what was to come when we started working on this book—or even when we proposed it to Teachers College Press. We find now that Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of hope and joy is more crucial than ever for teachers and schools. When so much that feels like evil surrounds us, we need to look past the dualism and see the potential for good within, waiting only for our recognition and response. Educators need to embrace the whole child, whole family, and whole community—perhaps even whole society—as precariously positioned, but with the potential for human revolution. The work of Ikeda, as explored in this book’s chapters, can illuminate a hopeful path toward joy not just in spite of the present circumstances, but because of the opportunities for growth and change these crises enable.” (p. 214)
Description
Students, parents, and educators are increasingly frustrated, demoralized, burned out, and discontented with education and schooling today. At no time has it been more necessary to revitalize hope in the promise of education or to reestablish joy in teaching and learning. 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. Grounded in 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. Ultimately, the book reminds readers that the classroom is still a magical space, brimming with the brilliant and creative energy of young people.
Book Features
- Illustrates the power of Daisaku Ikeda’s ideas to confront the challenging societal contexts and conditions that schools and educators face day in and day out.
- Shares narratives that employ critical and antiracist lenses to examine the authors’ own activist work with different populations across multiple contexts.
- Considers Daisaku Ikeda’s contributions relative to established and emerging trends in education, including the Deweyan tradition, ecojustice education, critical race feminism, and others.
- Provides cross-cultural examples and insights bolstering the current resurgence of humanistic, qualitative aspects of teaching and learning.
- Shows how the essential qualities of hope and joy fortify fields and themes that have been squeezed out by political agendas and standardized testing.
Advance Praise
“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.”
—Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Miami University
“How do we go on hoping after witnessing trauma? Hope and Joy in Education grapples with that question, one of special urgency in our post–George Floyd moment.”
—Awad Ibrahim, University of Ottawa
“This insightful book urges educators to center hope and joy in our work by fostering dialogue, seeking connection, and remembering that the true aim of education is to become more fully human.”
—Gregory Michie, Chicago public school teacher, and author, Holler If You Hear Me
Author(s)
Isabel Nuñez is professor of educational studies and director of the School of Education at Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Jason Goulah is professor of bilingual-bicultural education and director of the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University in Chicago.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Cynthia Dillard
Preface/Acknowledgments
Isabel Nuñez and Jason Goulah
Introduction: Daisaku Ikeda, and Hope and Joy in Education
Jason Goulah
PART I: CURRICULUM AND TEACHING FOR HOPE AND JOY
1. Joy as Sustenance: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda and the Lotus Sutra to Nourish Vocation
Isabel Nuñez
2. Determining to be Hopeful in Hopeless Times
Nozomi Inukai and Michio Okamura
3. “Hope is a Decision”: Pedagogical Acts Towards the Collective Commitment to Remake the World
Christopher Hall, Patricia Krueger-Henney, Nina Kunimoto, and Zeena Zakharia
4. A Fundamental Force at the Edge of the Formation of Society
M. Francyne Huckaby
5. Building a Change-focused Community with Practitioners as a Source of Hope
Allison Mattheis
6. Imparting Hope and Inspiring Joy: Practicing Value-Creative Dialogue in Educational Leadership
Melissa Bradford
PART II: HOPE AND JOY IN AESTHETIC AND EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
7. Restoring Hope for the Humanities: Daisaku Ikeda, Intercultural Study, and College Classroom Experience
Anita Patterson
8. Finding Hope and Joy in Curriculum Theory through Critical Race Feminism
Theodorea Regina Berry
9. Finding Hope and Joy through Daisaku Ikeda: The Rehabilitation of a Doctoral Candidate
Jayna McQueen Baker
10. Social Emotional Learning and Value-Creating Education: Synergistic Possibilities for Cultivating Hope and Joy in Higher Education
Deborah Donahue-Keegan
11. The Poetic Mind: The Key to Creating Hope and Joy in Education
Ritsuko Rita
12. Human Rights Education as a Resource for Self and Collective Transformation
Elora Chowdhury
PART III: SEEKING INNER JOY AND OUTER HOPE
13. Hope, Joy, and the Greater Self at the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue
Mitch Bogen
14. Value Creation and the Revitalization of Dependency as a Core Goal of Ecocritical Education
Johnny Lupinacci
15. Dancing with Hope
Walter Gershon
16. A Curriculum of Becoming
D. Joe Ohlinger
17. Hope in Remembrance of a Life Well Lived
Sandra Vanderbilt
18. Finding Hope and Joy in Life and Death: Daisaku Ikeda’s Philosophy of Ningen Kyōiku (Human Education)
Jason Goulah
Conclusion: Hope and Joy, Trust and Faith, and Poison as Medicine
Isabel Nuñez
About the Contributors
Index
Excerpts
Excerpt from the Introduction by Jason Goulah:
“It cannot be overstated that hope and joy pervade Ikeda’s philosophy and undergird his commitments and efforts. His collected writings abound with references to fostering hope and joy in all aspects of life. This is especially so for educators and students as they engage with global issues and the many sources of deep suffering common to all humanity. For Ikeda, hope is not passive or wishful thinking. It is engaged and determined. It is to gaze far into the future and desire something deeply and intensely. When we do so, Ikeda assures us… everything begins to move in the direction that we desire…
“Moreover, he couples hope with the ability to savor ‘joy at all times’ as essential characteristics of a truly expansive life. ‘Nothing is stronger than hope,’ he writes. ‘People who never lose hope, no matter what happens, are truly happy’. They are filled with an upsurge of energy and an almost indestructible joy. In this sense, hope and joy are most authentic and enduring when they come from within, a principle that is as empowering and compassionate as it is strict and uncompromising. But such hope-filled joy is not solitary. It is shared, dialogic, and interdependent.” (p.xxiv-xxv)
Excerpt from the Conclusion by Isabel Nuñez:
“Jason and I had no way of knowing what was to come when we started working on this book—or even when we proposed it to Teachers College Press. We find now that Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of hope and joy is more crucial than ever for teachers and schools. When so much that feels like evil surrounds us, we need to look past the dualism and see the potential for good within, waiting only for our recognition and response. Educators need to embrace the whole child, whole family, and whole community—perhaps even whole society—as precariously positioned, but with the potential for human revolution. The work of Ikeda, as explored in this book’s chapters, can illuminate a hopeful path toward joy not just in spite of the present circumstances, but because of the opportunities for growth and change these crises enable.” (p. 214)