Hope and Joy in Education features contributions from authors across diverse disciplines.
NEW YORK, USA: On April 9, 2021, Teachers College Press of Columbia University released Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda Across Curriculum and Context, which features contributions from 18 authors across diverse disciplines.
The volume “illustrates the power of Daisaku Ikeda’s ideas to confront the challenging societal contexts and conditions that schools and educators face every day in and day out . . . considers [his] contributions relative to established and emerging trends in education” and “provides cross-cultural examples and insights bolstering the current resurgence of humanistic, qualitative aspects of teaching and learning.”
It is co-edited by Isabel Nuñez, Director of the School of
Education at Purdue University Fort Wayne, and Jason Goulah, Director of the
Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University, with a
foreword by Cynthia B. Dillard, professor of education at the University of
Georgia.
The book’s release marks 25 years since Mr. Ikeda delivered
the lecture “Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship” at Teachers College.
Dr. Betty A. Reardon, founder and director of the Peace
Education Center and Peace Education Graduate Degree Program at Teachers
College, who attended Mr. Ikeda’s lecture 25 years ago, observed that the
volume will remind educators of the value and joy of discovering the unlimited
potential of students. She shared her hopes for Mr. Ikeda’s educational ideals
to reach as many educators as possible.
Hope and Joy in
Education was developed in association with the Ikeda Center for
Peace, Learning, and Dialogue, which organized a virtual book launch on April
15 attended by around 300 participants from 20 countries.
At the event, Professor Nuñez described how Mr. Ikeda’s
message of applying the Buddhist principle of “turning poison into medicine” in
these times of crisis has greatly impacted her thinking. Professor Goulah
commented that Mr. Ikeda’s philosophy is sure to inspire a great number of
people now more than ever.
[Adapted from an article in the April 22,
2021, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, Soka
Gakkai, Japan]
