Daisaku Ikeda and the Soka movement for global citizenship

ABSTRACT

This article examines contributions to the ethic and practice of cosmopolitanism by Japanese educators Makiguchi Tsunesaburo, Toda Josei and, most significantly, Ikeda Daisaku. Collectively, they are “the philosophers of the Soka movement” that Rizvi and Choo refer to in their call for a special issue on “Asian cosmopolitanism.” The article advances understanding about the Soka movement for cosmopolitanism in two ways. First, it traces the genealogy and thought informing the Soka movement and then examines the substance of each progenitor’s contributions to cosmopolitanism from historical and linguistic perspectives. The author pays particular attention to the inclusion of courage and faith in Ikeda’s framework and also addresses important translational insights invisible to those not fluent in Japanese. Second, the author analyzes today’s Soka movement for cosmopolitanism in education and in the Soka Gakkai International. This section draws on Sato Masaru’s views of the Soka movement and presents concrete examples of how Ikeda’s perspective of global citizenship is understood and actualized curricularly in the U.S. context.     

Experts and exiles: organic intellectuals,education, and the “Indian Problem” in postwar Ontario,Canada

Abstract

This article brings the Italian activist and thinker Antonio Gramsci’s theory of organic intellectualism and the Canadian historian Ian McKay’s theory of liberal state-formation to bear on the “Indian Question” – or how best to yoke Indigenous children and young people to the modern Canadian state. From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, often violent and disease-ridden “Residential Schools” were the primary means to this end. In the 1960s, a new approach was sought by the province of Ontario, culminating in the landmark education reform document, Living and Learning: The Report of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario (1968). Gentler forms of progressive educational “normalisation” informed by social science were pursued by the committee as a means of generating consent to a Canada now redefined as a postwar “Peaceable Kingdom”. This ostensibly kinder strategy nevertheless carried the colonial assumptions of the earlier period into the later one. This was made clear to the committee during the report’s preparation by Indigenous intellectuals advising them on Indigenous issues. They saw this liberal-technocratic approach for what it was – a novel form of neocolonial pedagogical violence. Though they were largely ignored by the committee, their dissent is instructive (as is the committee’s resistance to it) and allows us to put the darker corners of Canadian progressive education into historical perspective.     

Resisting and Surviving: Asian girls and education

The Schooling and Identity of Asian Girls FARZANA SHAIN Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham Books, 2002 160 pp., £15.99 (pbk) ISBN 1-85856181-7 Asian girls are not often the subject of mainstream texts and research on issues such as youth, identities and schooling—so this book makes a welcome addition. Indeed, research on femininities continues to be somewhat eclipsed by the ongoing ‘boys in crisis’ debate, in which the primary focus of academic and policy attention has been directed at boys' ‘underachievement’ and associated social and behavioural problems. Equally, issues of ‘race’, religion and ethnicity have been historically sidelined within mainstream sociological and educational research and therefore The Schooling and Identities of Asian Girls makes for a refreshing change. Despite the relative academic silence regarding Asian identities, recent world events have propelled Asian (but particularly Muslim) identities, into the British media spotlight. Since the high-profile Salman Rushdie controversy of the early 1990s, through to the British and American governments' declaration of the ‘war on terrorism’ after September 11th 2001, Muslim identities and associated issues of citizenship, nationality, belonging and identity are now all hot topics for debate.     

Ruyu Hung. Education between speech and writing: Crossing the boundaries of Dao and deconstruction (London: Routledge, 2018)

Abstract

This book review symposium aims to open a space for discussions and questions responded to the book Education between Speech and Writing: Crossing the Boundaries of Dao and Deconstruction, which is published in 2018. The symposium is composed of four articles by four authors. They are “Introduction” by the author of the book; Morimichi Kato's “Writing, History, and Playfulness: A dialogical review of Ruyu Hung's Education Between Speech and Writing: Crossing the Boundaries of Dao and Deconstruction”; Xu Di's “Think Beyond Dichotomy: Discussant paper on Education Between Speech & Writing by Dr. Ruyu Hung”; and Chia-Ling Wang's “Buddhist unconsciousness: A language beyond phonocentrism and graphocentrism in postgraphocentric education”. This symposium creates new possibilities of understanding and exploring Eastern Asian philosophy of education.     

The Elusive Goal of Nation Building: Asian/Confucian Values and Citizenship Education in Singapore During The 1980s

ABSTRACT

The term ‘Asian values’ became popular in the political discourse in the 1980s and 1990s. The most vocal proponents of Asian values are Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia's Mahathir and their deputies and government officials, as well as post-Tiananmen Chinese leaders. Most notable of all these three strands of the Asian values debate is the ‘Singapore School’, which ‘comprises leaders who have articulated a defence of the Singapore regime, either in their personal or official capacities’. This article discusses the origins and philosophical underpinnings of ‘Asian values’ in the Singapore context and its relationship to civics education. First, it provides the historical context for the interest in Confucianism and Asian Values. It then looks at the role and use of Confucianism and Asian Values in Asia, before discussing the case of Singapore and Asian values. I explore the interconnections between changes in history, civics and social studies curricula, and the politics of the ‘Asian Values’ discourse in Singapore which underpins these curricula. At the heart of the issue was the state's attempt to forge and articulate a Singaporean identity, and the role of citizenship/moral education in attaining this elusive nation building goal.     

Between “Islamic” and “un-Islamic”: Navigating Religion at an American Islamic High School

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate how one American Islamic school community grapples with external and internal demands on religion, and how this process impacts notions of what is religious. At ‘Ilm High School, an Islamic high school on America’s West Coast, school administrators and teachers must accommodate students’ and parents’ diverse and often competing ideas about Islam and the “Islamic.” In doing so, they sometimes downplay the “Islamic” in their Islamic Studies classes, policies, and school representation. They do this without venturing into the “un-Islamic”, casting a wide “religious net” and keeping Islam capacious and relevant enough for Muslim students.     

The legacy of Cold War anti-racism: a genealogy of cultural distance in the internationalisation of higher education

ABSTRACT

In this article, we develop a genealogy of international education studies’ tenets of culture shock and skills deficit. To trace their emergence, we map the discursive shifts which underpinned cultural anthropology’s involvement in the administration of US colonial, domestic, and international affairs respectively in the early 1900s and 1950s. These shifts are concomitantly linked to the formation of the field of intercultural communication, of which popularisation in the form of Hofstede model of “cultural distance” has structured international education when turning from a Cold War tool of total diplomacy to an export industry. Taking the development of international education in Australia as a case study, we demonstrate how the shifts in the disciplinary fields aforementioned are best understood as an anti-racist strategy, which mobilisation of the concept of culture has led to the paradoxical evacuation of the heuristic of race from the lexicon of intercultural contact between “Asian” international students and presumably white host institutions.     

Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) on the Education of Girls. An Investigation into his Medieval and Spanish Sources

Abstract

Due to his treatise on the education of girls and women, the “De institutione foeminae christianae” (1524), the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) is repeatedly labelled as “an advocate of woman's education” or “revolutionary feminist”. But, Vives’ treatise must be judged on other grounds than feminist or antifeminist, and must be confronted with patristic, medieval and humanistic ideas to give a clear outline of his personal emphases.

Therefore, Vives’ views are confronted in the first place with those of patristic authors like Jerome and Augustine and medieval moralists like Vincent of Beauvais, Aegidius Romanus, Francesco da Barberino, Christine de Pisan and Konrad Bitschin. Secondly, the circumstances of his treatise are compared with those of Italian pedagogues as Vergerio, Brunt and Piccolomini, and a special link is made with the dedication-process of books of houres from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Conclusion is that Vives’ work was equally influenced by the circumstances of the time of writing and the identity of his addressee, i.e. Catherine of Aragon, “the Spanish Queen in England”, as Vives called her. The impact of Thomas More’s humanist circle on Vives’ treatise is also of great importance.

But scholars have — for several reasons — overlooked the great influence of Vives’ Spanish background, and especially the direct influence of the Catalan Minorite Francesc Eiximenis (ca. 1340- 1409). Not only Vives’ “Institutio” shows many parallels in contenance and style with Eiximenis’ “Llibre de les clones”, there seems to be also an influence of Eiximenis on Vives’ political views in his “De subventione pauperum”. The comparison between Eixmenis and Vives’ views on education of women will preserve tomorrow’s Vives specialists from making rashly attributed claims of originality and will open the eyes for Spanish medieval sources in a so-called “humanist” treatise.     

Exploring Trajectories of Young Mothers’ Parenting Stress in Early Childhood: Associations with Protective Factors and Psychological Vulnerabilities

SYNOPSIS

Objective . Most parents manage some degree of parenting stress without serious concerns, but young mothers experience parenting stress at higher levels than adult mothers; high parenting stress is problematic due to its association with children’s socioemotional and behavior problems and the increased likelihood of maltreatment. Understanding the circumstances that precipitate or mitigate parents’ stress can have lasting impacts for child well-being. Extant research fails to account for both longitudinal and individual variation in young mothers’ parenting stress, leading to equivocal findings about the nature of mothers’ parenting stress trajectories across early childhood. Design . The present study used growth mixture modeling (GMM) to model the trajectories of 544 first-time young mothers’ parenting stress from children’s infancy to school-age. We considered how protective factors (i.e., social support) and psychological vulnerabilities (i.e., depression) experienced during the transition to parenthood were associated with parenting stress trajectories and variation within trajectories when children were of school-age. Results . GMM identified three trajectories of parenting stress: “low stable”, “high increasing”, and “high decreasing.” Protective factors were related to low and decreasing patterns of parenting stress, whereas psychological vulnerabilities were associated with higher parenting stress patterns. Conclusions . This study has implications for programs and services that help young mothers cope with the demands of parenting and reduce parenting stress.     

从荣格性格哲学解读奥贡喀沃的性格

作为“尼日利亚四部曲”之一的《瓦解》,是“非洲文学之父”钦努阿＆#183;阿契贝的主要作品之一,讲述了非洲氏族文化在白人的到来下土崩瓦解的过程。通过荣格的性格哲学可以看出,个人无意识和集体无意识对奥贡喀沃的性格产生了巨大的影响,也是导致其自杀的重要因素。     

The educationalising of early childhood in Aotearoa New Zealand: tracking “free play” 1940s–2010

Abstract

Geographically isolated in the south-west Pacific but intellectually and culturally connected to Western Europe, Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education sector is a unique mix of influences. The imprint of progressive education is evident in a legacy of “free play” programmes, yet its national curriculum is built on the construct of “mana”, reflecting the cosmology and aspirations of the indigenous Māori people. These influences are held in tension with contemporary economic drivers to expand the sector and to focus on politically approved “learning outcomes”. Within this dynamic tension, the place of play and of “free play” is paradoxically both visible and invisible both in the education of very young children, and also in teacher education. This study draws on oral history interviews that focused on “free play” across 60+ years. The analysis of these indicates a process of “educationalisation” evident across three “reform agendas”: Play, Unity, and Education.     

Educational psychologists’ practice: obtaining and representing young people’s views

ABSTRACT

Many studies have focused on the importance of the participation of children and young people (CYP) in their education, although fewer papers discuss the practical aspects of seeking their views and fewer again on representing them. A mixed method approach was used to collect information regarding educational psychologists’ (EPs’) practice in obtaining and representing CYP’s views. A questionnaire (n = 73) was used to gather data from local authority educational psychology services (EPSs) across Wales and eight participants who completed the questionnaire took part in an interview to explore their views in more depth. Using thematic analysis, the major themes constructed included “accessing a true representation of CYP’s views”, “gaining CYP’s views empowers them” and “child-centred practice”. The implications of the present study for the role of educational psychologists are discussed, together with future directions for research and the limitations of the present study.     

Mental health of children exposed to intimate partner violence against their mother: A longitudinal study from Brazil

BackgroundExposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important adverse childhood experience, but there are few longitudinal studies in low and middle-income countries.ObjectiveTo investigate the consequences of exposure to IPV for a child’s mental health.Participants and setting614 mother-child pairs were evaluated in a poor urban district in Recife, northeastern Brazil.MethodsWomen were interviewed in pregnancy, postpartum and six to nine years after delivery, and asked about their experience of IPV, and the exposure of their child to violence. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was completed by child’s mother and teacher. Ten types of child experience of IPV and the age of onset of exposure were compared with the child’s behavioral profile at school age.ResultsThe mothers reported that 372/614 (60.6%) children had been exposed to IPV. The commonest types of child exposure to IPV were “prenatally”, “overheard”, “eyewitnessed”, and 10.0% of children were physically or verbally involved in the IPV. Mothers reported high SDQ Total Difficulties scores in 71.7% of all children exposed to IPV and teachers in 59.8%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated the strongest association with behavioral difficulties was with exposure to IPV in the age group 1–2 years (OR 2.5 [95% CI: 1.3–4.8]).ConclusionYoung children are sensitive to the age of first exposure to IPV and to the type of IPV. Interventions to reduce IPV should be targeted on vulnerable women from poor urban communities during their pregnancies and in the first two years of their child’s life.     

Asian North-American Children’s Literature About the Internment: Visualizing and Verbalizing the Traumatic Thing

Examining six texts about the traumatic experience of the internment either in Canada or the United States during World War II, we focus not only on their stylistic shift from visualization to verbalization as targeted ages of readers increase, but also on the effects, both historical and personal, social and domestic, on children of their perception of the traumatic Thing. We propose an answer to essential questions: How can we deal with the dark page in human history and overcome its haunting memories? How can we most effectively share the tales of terror with younger generations? These questions will be approached in the light of a Lacanian reading of the six texts. Instead of using these texts as a surrogate for a Lacanian psychoanalysis or demonstrating how therapeutic reading these stories can be, we explicate the concept of trauma and the meaning of the successful “healing” according to Lacan’s assumption regarding the end and the aim of psychoanalytic treatment.     

A Comparison of Students' Predictions of Rank Order on Proximate and Remote Tasks

Abstract

Students’ expectations of relative academic achievement tend to decline over time. “High” and “low” ranking students alike tend to make lower predictions of final class standing at mid-course than at the beginning In the absence of feed-back supporting other conclusions. Moreover, In predicting relative achievement in successive competitive tasks, “high” and “low” students alike tend to predict much lower ranking on the proximate task than the remote task. This phenomenon has Implications for the allocation of counseling efforts to adjust students' expectations to their realistic academic prospects.

It has also been found that graduate students’ predictions of final letter-grades can be quite ambiguous with respect to their expectations of final class rank.     

Power Users and patchworking – An analytical approach to critical studies of young people’s learning with digital media

This paper sets out to problematise generational categories such as “Power Users” or “New Millennium Learners” by discussing these in the light of recent research on youth and information and communication technology. We then suggest analytic and conceptual pathways to engage in more critical and empirically founded studies of young people’s learning in technology and media‐rich settings. Based on a study of a group of young “Power Users”, it is argued that conceptualising and analysing learning as a process of patchworking can enhance our knowledge of young people’s learning in such settings. We argue that the analytical approach gives us ways of critically investigating young people’s learning in technology and media‐rich settings, and study if these are processes of critical, reflexive enquiry where resources are creatively re‐appropriated. With departure in an analytical example, the paper presents the proposed metaphor of understanding learning as a process of patchworking and discusses how we might use this to understand young people’s learning with digital media.

Les “Power Users” et la construction en “patchwork” – Une approche analytique des études critiques portant sur l’apprentissage chez les jeunes avec l’aide des médias numériques.

Le présent article vise à faire ressortir la problématique des catégories de générations, celles par exemple des “Power Users” ou des “Apprenants du Nouveau Millénaire” en les examinant de façon critique à la lumière des recherches récentes sur la jeunesse et les TICE. Nous suggérons ensuite des voies d’approche analytiques et conceptuelles pour nous engager dans des études plus critiques et plus solidement empiriques de l’apprentissage chez les jeunes dans des environnements à fort contenu technologique et médiatique. En nous appuyant sur l’étude d’un groupe de jeunes “Power Users”, on avance l’hypothèse selon laquelle le fait d’analyser et de conceptualiser l’apprentissage comme un processus de construction de patchwork peut améliorer notre connaissance de l’apprentissage chez les jeunes se trouvant dans de tels environnements. Nous avançons l’idée que cette approche analytique nous fournit les moyens d’étudier de façon critique l’apprentissage chez les jeunes se trouvant dans des environnements à fort contenu technologique et médiatique et de déterminer s’il s’agit là de processus de recherche critique et réflexive dans lequel ils se réapproprient les ressources de façon créative. En s’appuyant sur un exemple analytique, cet article présente une proposition, celle d’une métaphore pour comprendre l’apprentissage comme un processus de patchwork et discute de la façon dont nous pourrions l’ utiliser pour comprendre de quelle façon les jeunes apprennent avec les medias numériques.

?Power User“ und ?Patchworking“ – eine analytische Annäherung an kritische Studien über das Lernen junger Leute mit digitalen Medien

Dieser Artikel problematisiert generationspezifische Kategorien wie ?Power Users“ und ?New Millenium Learners“ welche hier vor dem Hintergrund der jüngsten Forschungsergebnisse im Bereich Jugend und Informations‐ und Telekommunikationstechnologie (ITK) diskutiert werden. Darauf aufbauend werden analytische und konzeptionelle Wege vorgeschlagen, wie auf empierischer und auf Fakten basierender Grundlage das Lernen junger Menschen in einem technologie‐ und medienreichen Umfeld studiert werden kann. Eine Gruppe junger ?Power Users“ ist die Grundlage unserer Argumentation, dass Konzeptionalisierung und Analyse des Patchwork Lernprozesses junger Leute unser Verständnis von ihrer Herangehensweise an den Lernprozess verbessern kann. Wir argumentieren, dass die analytische Herangehensweise uns hilft, das Lernen junger Leute im ITK Kontext zu analysieren und wir untersuchen, ob diese Prozesse kritisch und reflexiv sind und dazu beitragen, Ressourcen kreativ zu nutzen. Der Artikel schließt mit einem analytischen Beispiel in dem wir die zuvor diskutierte Metapher – Lernen als einen Patchworkprozess zu verstehen – nutzen, um zu diskutieren wie dieses Verständnis genutzt werden kann, um unser Wissen über das Lernen junger Leute mit digitalen Medien zu erweitern.

Los “Power Users” y la construcción en “patchwork” – Un enfoque analítico sobre los estudios críticos acerca del aprendizaje de los jóvenes con los medios digitales.

El propósito del presente artículo es de hacer resaltar la problemática de las categorías de generaciones, entre ellas los “Power Users” o los “discentes del Nuevo Milenio”, a través de una discusión de esas categorías a la luz de las últimas investigaciones sobre la juventud y las TICs. Sugerimos después algunos caminos analíticos y conceptuales para meterse en estudios con una base más crítica y más fuertemente empírica, del aprendizaje de los jóvenes en entornos con una fuerte dimensión tecnológica y mediatizada. Basandose en el estudio de un grupo de jovenes “Power Users”, se argumenta que el hecho de analizar y conceptualizar el aprendizaje como si fuese un proceso de “patchworking”, puede en realidad realzar nuestro conocimiento de la manera de aprender de los jovenes en entornos de ese tipo. Argumentamos que el enfoque analítico nos ofrece maneras de investigar críticamente el aprendizaje de los jóvenes dentro de entornos fuertemente tecnológicos y mediatizados y de estudiar si se trata de procesos de investigación crítica y reflexiva en los cuales se produce una re‐apropiación creativa de los recursos. Con una salida hacia un ejemplo analítico este artículo presenta la propuesta de una metáfora para entender el aprendizaje como si fuese un proceso de construcción de un “patchwork” con una discusión sobre las posibilidades de uso de esto para entender como los jóvenes aprender con los medios digitales.     

Tracking the Environmental Information Explosion

Abstract

An undergraduate sample was asked to choose the best energy-related option for Canada to pursue in the short run (the next five years) and the long run (beyond the year 2000). Preferences for specific options, for “soft” versus “hard” energy paths and shifts in preferences from the short to the long run were strongly associated with environmental attitudes. “Ecocentrists” (the pro-environment group) favored the soft path (solar, conservation), while “technocentrists” (the less environmentally inclined) favored the hard path; especially nuclear. Recommendations are made concerning public information about conservation and the need for policy makers to canvas public attitudes.     

Can coders abstract child maltreatment variables from child welfare administrative data and case narratives for public health surveillance in Canada?

BackgroundPublic health surveillance is essential to inform programs that aim to eradicate child maltreatment (CM) and to provide services to children and families. However, collection of CM data imposes a burden on child welfare workers (CWWs). This study assesses the feasibility of hiring coders to abstract the required information from administrative records and case narratives.MethodsBased on a convenience sample of child welfare data from Manitoba, Canada, two coders abstracted information on 181 alleged CM cases. The coders completed a short web-based questionnaire for each case to identify which of five types of CM had been investigated, level of substantiation for each type, and risk of future CM. The CWWs responsible for each case completed the same questionnaire. Percentages of the occurrence of CM by the three sources were compared. The validity of the coders’ classifications was assessed by calculating sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values, against the CWWs’ classifications as the “gold standard.” Cohen’s kappa was also calculated.ResultsThe coders’ classifications of physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect generally matched those of CWWs; for exposure to intimate partner violence, agreement was weak for one coder. Coding of emotional maltreatment and risk investigations could not be evaluated.ConclusionResults were promising. Abstraction was not time-consuming. Differences between coders and CWWs can be largely explained by the administrative data system, child welfare practice, and legislation. Further investigation is required to determine if additional training could improve coders’ classifications of CM.     

“In the street they’re real,in a picture they’re not”: Constructions of children and childhood among users of online child sexual exploitation material

BackgroundResearch about online child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) users focuses on psychological assessments, demographics, motivations, and offending rates. Little is known about their understandings of children in CSEM.ObjectiveFrom an anthropological perspective, examine CSEM users’ constructions of children and childhood online and offline, and explore how these factor into their crimes.Participants and settingCSEM users in UK group programs.MethodsIn-depth ethnography, including 17 months of participant observation in group programs with 81 CSEM users, 31 semi-structured interviews with group participants, and inductive analysis of themes illuminated by childhood theory from anthropology.ResultsWhen referring to children offline, many participants claimed to align with Euro-American norms and constructions surrounding children’s learning, protection, irrationality, inexperience, asexuality, and innocence. However online, many constructed children differently: as less or not “real,” and as sexualized. This rendered children in CSEM fundamentally different, which facilitated offending, assisted in overcoming barriers, and allowed participants to hold conventional beliefs about children and childhood while engaging in incongruent online activity. Vital in this process was Internet use and associated distancing, detachment, anonymity, and cultural othering. The program used victim empathy to restore dominant norms to online children, for which participants invoked feelings, recognized their role in abuse, extrapolated consequences for victims, and reinforced norms.ConclusionsConstructions of children and childhood were central in offending. The complexities of negotiating “real” versus “not real” in both offending and victim empathy are discussed, as are conceptual distinctions between “constructions” and “cognitive distortions,” and implications for treatment and prevention.