EdGloCit Development Proposal
The Education for Global Citizenship Institute
Education should be a vehicle to develop in one's character
the noble spirit to embrace and augment the lives of others.
Education should provide in this way the momentum
to win over one's own weaknesses,
to thrive in the midst of society's sometimes stringent realities,
and to generate new victories for the human future.
Daisaku Ikeda
Contents
Summary ........................................................................................................ 2
Partnerships ................................................................................................. 3
Initiatives ..................................................................................................... 4
Detailed Discussion .......................................................................................... 6
Education for Global Citizenship Endowed Chair................................................. 6
Geo Morning Meeting ..................................................................................... 7
“Lionshare” Readers ...................................................................................... 8
Geography Charter Schoosl ............................................................................ 9
Sunday School Project ................................................................................. 11
Demonstration School .................................................................................. 12
Research, Development, and Dissemination Grants ......................................... 13
Non-traditional Settings to Promote EGC ........................................................ 14
References .................................................................................................... 15
Summary
On June 13, 1996 Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, the president of the Soka Gakkai
International (www.daisakuikeda.org), delivered a lecture, “Thoughts
on Education for Global Citizenship,” at Teachers College, Columbia
University in which he outlined an educational paradigm based on the
development of global citizenship as its core aim. The fifteenth
anniversary of this event occurred in 2011 and efforts should start now
to memorialize the lecture with concrete actions.
This paper proposes the formation of the Education for Global
Citizenship Institute (EdGloCit) and several other potential partners.
EdGloCit’s purpose is to explore practical means for implementing Dr.
Ikeda’s vision for education outlined in the lecture which was further
delineated in two education proposals, “Serving the Essential Needs of
Education” (2000) and “Reviving Education” (2001).
EGC is synonymous with Soka education. It is clear that Dr. Ikeda
sees EGC as the vehicle for introducing the humanistic principles of
Soka education into public education. Furthermore, it is evident how
much he wishes to introduce the educational ideas of Tsunesaburo
Makiguchi into the soil of modern schooling. In his lecture and
proposals he uses simple vocabulary and powerful imagery to portray
a vision of education that offers a foundation and framework for
educational reform as well as specific action items. It is the goal of
EdGloCit to actualize this vision.
Dr. Ikeda gave his lecture at an early moment of the accountability
movement in American education which has since gathered formidable
momentum. Dr. Ikeda as well as Tsunesaburo Makiguchi neither
endorsed nor criticized such movements or their precedents. Instead,
they consistently have attempted to present a larger perspective that
holds the promise of supporting and uniting both progressive and
traditional paradigms of education.
The efforts of EdGloCit will be directed towards promoting education
for global citizenship (EGC) while assisting schools meet accountability
standards. Its responsibilities will include research, development of
pilot programs, networking and dissemination.
Partnerships
EdGloCit will operate as a 501(c)(3) foundation and will receive
funding through contributions from private organizations and
individuals. In order to maximize its influence on American education,
EdGloCit is conceived as a partnership of several potential
organizations that fulfill various roles:
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Academic institution: Site of EdGloCit, center of multi-disciplinary expertise in
education.
Networking institution: Maintaining overall consortium focus on Dr. Ikeda’s
“Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship” lecture.
Geography education institution: Resource for implementing Makiguchi’s
geography component and Ikeda’s call for developmental and environmental
education.
Community-based education institution: Resource for implementing
Makiguchi’s community-based component.
Peace-education institution: Resource for implementing United Nations
education, peace education, and human rights education.
Ethical education institution: Resources for ethical education component of
EGC and bridging divides in American society: red vs. blue, rural/heartland
vs. urban coastal, “haves” vs. “have-nots.”
Initiatives
EdGloCit will fund initiatives that can rapidly make an impact in
instituting EGC as a core thrust of contemporary schooling. The
common criterion for all initiatives is to implement EGC while
developing student character and respecting and aiding the demanding
realities of accountability that schools are today facing:
1. “Education for Global Citizenship Endowed Chair” at the
participating academic institution—an endowed chair for a
professor committed to enacting the vision of Daisaku Ikeda’s
1996 speech, “Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship.”
2. The “Geo Morning Meeting”—a curriculum and resource box of
mini-lessons for grades K-3 that can be taught in 15-minute
“morning meetings” at the start of the school day. The focus of
the curriculum will be a Makiguchi-inspired study of geography
and the local community.
3. “The Lionshare Readers”—basal reader series inspired by the
work of Harold Rugg, a contemporary of Dewey at Teachers
College, an interdisciplinary collection of fiction and non-fiction
for grades 2-8 that integrates the curriculum around the theme
of global citizenship. The title suggests that the lionshare of
curriculum could be conveyed through EGC in a compact and
efficient manner as advocated by Makiguchi.
4. Geography Charter Schools—the formation of a proprietary
geography-based K-12 curriculum created from resources such
as National Geographic Society that can be implemented by
existing and aspiring charter schools and also serve as a model
for public schools interested in using geography as a basis for
compacting and integrating the curriculum.
5. The Sunday School Project—a pioneering communication effort
to explore common values and practices between the heartland
church and EGC through the Sunday School curriculum.
6. Demonstration “Global Citizenship Laboratory School”--a model
public school committed to incorporating EGC as its core
principle with the goal of dissemination.
7. Research, Development, and Dissemination Grants that are
specifically design to develop and disseminate practices that can
disseminate EGC practices to community-based schools.
8. Support Grants for non-traditional educational settings where
EGC can be quickly implemented as the organizing principle such
as small alternative schools, homeschooling cooperatives, or
afterschool EGC Afterschool Centers (Jap: “Juku”).
Detailed Discussion
Education for Global Citizenship Endowed Chair
There is a strong need for one academic institution to play a key role
in envisioning EGC as the core principle of American education.
There is historical precedent for this. In the 1930’s Teachers College
fulfilled such a role when educators such as John Dewey, George
Counts, Harold Rugg, William Kilpatrick, Jesse H. Newlon, and
Goodwin Watson formed the core of the progressive education
movement. It is clear that another institution must launch a new
wave of reform today.
Dr. Ikeda’s speech underlies the urgent need to revitalize American
education and he provides EGC as the paradigm that can underlie
reformation. The professor chosen to fill the Education for Global
Citizenship Chair will attempt to harness the vast resources of the
college to promote EGC as its integrating vision. Furthermore,
through convocations, publications, and travels, the designated
professor will attempt to promulgate the vision of Dr. Ikeda’s speech
to a broad audience.
Geo Morning Meeting
In today’s educational climate, focused so intently on accountability,
teachers face enormous demands to prepare students to succeed on
reading and math assessments. The relentless pressure starts even
with kindergarten as mainstay activities such as recess, nap-time, play
time, trips, and art are replaced with academic preparation.
With such demands on their time, teachers are highly skeptical of
“add-on” programs, regardless of their merit. For this reason EGC has
to be carefully integrated into the curriculum.
An excellent vehicle for this is the “morning meeting” or “circle time,”
a common practice in early childhood classes (Kriete & Bechtel;
Novelli; Whyte).”Geo Morning” is a geography and community studies
curriculum and resource box based on the ideas of Tsunesaburo
Makiguchi. Topics are organized into 15-minute mini-lessons that are
easily incorporated into morning meetings.
EdGloCit believes that these seemingly small ventures into geography
and community studies can have an enormous accumulated effect over
the course of four early childhood grades. The topics of “The Earth as
the Base for Human Life” in Makiguchi’s A Geography of Human Life
(Bethel), can certainly be introduced and serve as a strong foundation
for future geography education. Important concepts from Place-Based
Education (Sobel) can also be introduced through morning meetings.
The National Geographic Society has a vast array of visual media that
can be systematically presented at morning meetings. The Center for
Place-based Learning and Community Engagement as well as affiliated
organizations such as the Orion Society and The Center for PlaceBased Education at Antioch University New England have developed
resources for community-based education.
“Lionshare” Readers
Lionshare is a series of basal readers for grades 2-8. Lionshare
consists of fiction and non-fiction selections that teach basic reading
skills and grade appropriate vocabulary while carefully and
systematically interjecting important subject matter themes from the
disciplines of the social sciences, science, and the arts. Themes are
carefully chosen for their contribution to EGC. There is a strong
integrating focus on geography, place-based education, and the
biographies of influential people who serve as role models of global
citizens. The organizing principle of these readers is that the
“lionshare” of subject matter can at least be introduced in content and
serve as jumping off point for further instruction by teachers.
A prime goal of EdGloCit is to enable educators to implement EGC as
the core curriculum component. Lionshare Readers are designed to
provide teachers with the integrating focus around which subject
matter is introduced. In this way the curriculum becomes simplified,
an important response to Makiguchi’s call for efficiency in curriculum.
Thus EGC becomes the prime point rather than an “add on” in the
already crowded K-8 curriculum.
One precedent for Lionshare is the “Social Science Pamphlets”
published by Professor Harold Rugg of Teachers College and his
associates (Carbone). Rugg's series of 14 volumes entitled “Man and
His Changing Society,” focused on history and other social sciences,
sold over 5 million copies, and had a profound influence on American
education in the 1920's and 1930's. Cogently written to engage
student interest and promote dialogue, the series introduced students
to key concepts in history while highlighting critical thinking and
contemporary problem-solving.
Another example of a reader aligned to core subjects is the Core
Knowledge Series which was inspired by E.D. Hirsch. Each book in the
series introduces topics in a variety of disciplines for students in
grades 1-6 with the underlying assumption that knowledge of these
subjects will provide students with a foundation of “cultural literacy.”
The Core Knowledge Foundation has enhanced this series into a
complete K-8 sequence of instruction and a supportive system of
professional development.
Geography Charter Schoosl
Charter schools are currently seen as powerful fulcrums for injecting
educational reform into public schooling. Charter schools are unique in
their philosophies and approaches but several for-profit and not-forprofit organizations have created replicable models for adaptation. As
of now, no organizations have proposed geography and place-based
education as the core curriculum for their schools.
EdGloCit will partner with an interested group of founders to create a
proprietary geography-based interdisciplinary curriculum that can be
adopted by aspiring charter schools as a part of their charter
application. National Geographic has abundant resources to create
such a curriculum. “Curriculum crosswalks” are the most laborintensive and time-consuming components of the charter school
applications in most states. By adapting the proprietary curriculum,
charter applicants can concentrate their energies on other new school
issues rather than writing redundant standards. At the same, a
national network of schools based on geography as the integrating
focus of the curriculum would go far to fulfill the vision of Makiguchi.
There is good reason for schools to base their curriculum on
geography. Gersmehl has argued that student academic achievement
can be greatly enhanced by strengthening distinctive forms of
cognition that are especially useful in dealing with the kinds of facts
and theories that characterize the discipline of geography. Emerging
research seemingly indicates that the study of geography from a
spatial-thinking perspective can affect and improve overall cognitive
functioning. Uttal (2000), for example, finds that practice in using and
thinking about maps has a positive effect on helping children develop
abstract concepts of space as well as the skill to think systematically
about spatial relations, even ones not experienced directly by them.
In short, EdGloCit will facilitate the development of schools that teach
geography to take advantage of these innate neural “strategies” for
organizing and representing information about places and the
relationships among places. The details of these neural strategies are
not fully understood yet, because the subject is complicated and the
research depends on very recently invented technologies (e.g. fMRI
brain imaging, PET scanning, eye-movement tracking).
The existence of a wave of Geography Charter Schools will help create
a critical mass that will lead to adaptation of geography education in
many more public schools.
Sunday School Project
In order to introduce EGC to a wide variety of schools in the United
States and create a sustaining commitment, it is necessary to find
common ground throughout the national spectrum of ideology. In
particular, it is important to move from urban centers into the
heartland and rural areas in particular.
Since EGC speaks powerfully about character development—both for
students and teachers—Sunday schools of all denominations can serve
as a powerful unifying force across the religious and ideological
spectrum.
EdGloCit will engage with heartland partners to explicitly locate
shared values that lead to versions of “Geo Meetings” and “Lionshare”
that can be incorporated into Sunday School classes. The Sunday
School Project will emphasize site-based education and stories of
historical figures who model ethical behavior. The Sunday School
Project will include a parent component which helps parents navigate
the school system, educational standards, and accountability. It also
includes a ministry component which enables the leaders of religious
organizations to play more prominent roles in public education.
The partners can also help review all EdGloCit materials to assure that
they meet the needs of heartland communities.
Demonstration School
EdGloCit will provide extensive funding to one school deeply
committed to implementing EGC as a basis for the curriculum and to
assisting in dissemination efforts.
According to Hansen (2007), educational philosophies must comprise
(1) a statement of values, (2) a moral compass, (3) and an abiding
engine of ideas. The model school must show evidence that it is
committed to these principles as points of organization and to EGC as
the cornerstone of the curriculum. The school environment itself must
be a tight-knit community where leadership is engendered through
participation and service. Teachers in this school must be fully
committed towards serving as models of global citizens through the
values of their own self-improvement, commitment to discourse, and
service.
The prime premise of the demonstration school is that EGC must be
modeled through school culture as well as taught through curriculum.
All aspects of the school will be driven by the concept of value
creation. The model school would be committed to implementing
“Geo-Mornings” and the “Lionshare Reader” and fully utilize geography
and community-based education throughout the curriculum. It would
be committed to peace, environment, developmental, and human
rights education as well as instruction about the United Nations. It
would base its literacy program on reading the classics and study the
biographies of great people as models for character development.
Teacher professional development would center on the study of the
Hero’s Journey (Campbell; Brown & Moffett)—mission-driven quests by
self-initiating teachers who willingly take on the obstacles and
confusions of public education to save the children. Teachers will
study the lives and philosophies of great global educational heroes
such as John Dewey, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Rabindrath Tagore,
Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Tao Xingzhi, W.E.B. Du Bois, Jane
Addams, and Kurt Hahn.
The model school will serve as a showplace of the possibilities of EGC
and an indication of hope for all schools.
Research, Development, and Dissemination Grants
The local community can be a very important portal to EGC. Japanese
educator and philosopher Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) once
stated:
“The community, in short, is the world in miniature. If we
encourage children to observe directly the complex relations
between people and the land, between nature and society,
they will grasp the realities of their homes, their school, the
town, village or city, and will be able to understand the wider
world.”
EdGloCit aims to create wider interest in schools and among teachers
about ways to systematically use community studies as an integrating
focus of the curriculum. Towards this aim, EdGloCit will sponsor
grants to K-12 schools that develop community studies programs and
are willing to disseminate their findings through a dedicated interactive
website and annual conference.
The RFP will specify approaches whose explorations would provide
research documentation for several of Dr. Ikeda's educational
proposals:
 Education for human rights, peace, environment, and
development;
 Community studies and volunteerism as a basis for curriculum
integration;
 Education about the United Nations;
 Finding EGC values through the reading of literature classics;
 Development, conservation, and restoration of teacher
character;
 Development of the essential elements of global citizenship and
personality formation;
 Fostering rich humanism and spirituality to overcome discipline
breakdown, school violence, bullying, burnout, attendance
phobia, apathy and cynicism;
 Fostering interactions with nature;
 Case studies of never giving up on a single child’s life.
Non-traditional Settings to Promote EGC
Embedding EGC in American schools will require fostering numerous
sites where it can be demonstrated in practice. School change, an
exceedingly slow and frustrating task, can be encouraged through
“Gakushu Juku” (Japanese: afterschool centers) are private afterschool
centers, primarily located in Japan, where students engage in studies
that supplement or support their public school programs. It is
estimated that approximately one half of Japanese children study at
Juku. Many Juku are organized around specific themes such as test
preparation, second language, abacus instruction, music, art, and
sports.
EdGloCit will support a series of Juku for American high school
students based on the theme of global citizenship. At the Juku
students will explore carefully chosen websites and create collaborative
work projects that foster global citizenship. American students will
have the opportunity to link with peers from Juku in other developing
and newly developing countries through an Internet platform. There
will also be an annual summer camp where Juku students from many
countries can interact together. As English will be the lingua franca of
exchange, American Juku students will be instrument in providing
English instruction while gaining international perspective in the
process.
References
Bethel, D. M., ed. (2002). A geography of human life (English Edition).
San Francisco: Caddo Gap Press.
Carbone, P.F. (1977). The social and educational thoughts of Harold
Rugg. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Evans, R.W. (2007). This happened in America: Harold Rugg and the
censure of Social Studies. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Hansen, D. T., ed. (2007). Ethical visions in education: Philosophies in
practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Ikeda, D. (1996). Thoughts on education for global citizenship. In D.
Ikeda (2001). Soka education: A Buddhist vision for teachers, students
and parents. Santa Monica,CA: Middleway Press.
Kriete, R. & Bechtel, L. (2002). The morning meeting book. Greenfield
MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.
Novelli, J. (2004). Quick tips! Morning meeting. New York: Scholastic,
Inc.;
Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms &
Communities. Orion Society. Nature Literacy Series, No. 4.
Uttal, D.H. (2000). Seeing the big picture: Map use and the
development of spatial cognition Developmental Science 3#3:247264.
Whyte, D. (2004). Morning meeting, afternoon wrap-ups: How to
motivate kids, teach to their strengths, and meet your state’s
standards. Peterborough, NH: Crystal Springs Review.