Global Citizen Education Project

2025 Conference: July 10 to July 13, 2025
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“What our world most requires now is the kind of education that fosters love for humankind, that develops character—that provides an intellectual basis for the realization of peace and empowers learners to contribute to and improve society.”

(Daisaku Ikeda 1997)

“Global Citizenship education is the lifelong journey that continues throughout our lives.”

— Ramon Paras

“This conference gave me hope, joy and excitement. I have hope now and I know what to do next.”

— Sari Nakayama

“I realized that while the curriculum, textbooks, and teaching methods are important, the care, compassion, and relationships that a teacher has with their students are just as important, if not more so, than the curriculum and pedagogy.”

— Ryan Hayashi

Overview

The Global Citizenship Education (GCE) project is dedicated to creating a collaborative network of individuals, organizations, and institutions inspired by Ikeda’s vision of GCE, to foster the next generation of global citizens empowered to solve pressing global challenges. We aim to make GCE resources accessible and practical for PreK-12 educators who seek to implement GCE in their classrooms. A central initiative of this project is our upcoming in-person conference for educators, scheduled for summer 2025, which will provide a platform to deepen the understanding of GCE and community-building opportunities to advance GCE practices across diverse educational settings.

Purpose

The conference participants discuss and further consolidate the GCE core concepts by:

  1. Engaging in discussions about the challenges to implementing GCE to their respective educational settings and how we can stay hopeful and inspired;
  2. Collecting the participants’ stories and experiences dealing with ‘global citizenship’ in their respective roles and school institutions;
  3. Developing model resources for GCE at PreK-12 levels that are based on the participants’ real-life successful examples and aligned with the core concepts;
  4. Proposing ways to widely disseminate the PreK-12 GCE resources and the core concepts to public audiences in the future.

Ikeda's GCE

Global Citizenship Education is a widely studied topic of discussion by scholars worldwide. This project is aimed at the unique perspective Daisaku Ikeda’s view on GCE. The SUA Founder articulated three qualities of Global Citizens in the Teachers College, Columbia University in 1996:

  • The wisdom to perceive the interconnectedness of all life.
  • The courage not to fear or deny difference but to respect and strive to understand people of different cultures and to grow from encounters with them.
  • The compassion to maintain an imaginative empathy that reaches beyond one’s immediate surroundings and extends to those suffering in distant places

Read Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship

Core Concept (Framework Inspired by Ikeda’s GCE)

This framework is a synthesis of Ikeda’s recurring themes addressing global citizenship education, in alignment with the principles of Soka University of America through the lens of PreK-12 educators. We adopt Ikeda’s principles — humanism in society, pacifism in the world, culture in the community, and creative coexistence of nature and humanity — and propose a fifth core concept, which is dedication to inner transformation. We feel this concept which is integral and consistent with Ikeda’s body of work on global citizenship education is especially pertinent in the P-12 educational context. The framework is not intended to be prescriptive but rather utilized as a guiding structure that can be adapted and applied to the unique and situated contexts and needs of various learning environments worldwide. The five concepts (fifth as proposed by the GCE Working Group members) are:

  1. Dedication to Inner Transformation
  2. Dedication to Living a Contributive Life
  3. Dedication to Humanism in Action
  4. Dedication to Peace and Nonviolence
  5. Dedication to the Creative Coexistence of Self and Environment

2025 Global Citizenship Education Conference

Join us July 10 to July 13, 2025

Details and Application

Previous Conferences

2024 Conference

The 2024 conference finalized the projects that the participants had been working on since the previous year’s conference. The three projects focused on social-emotional learning, leadership support, and lesson plans. The projects were then presented to the SUA community. Another driving force of this conference was to build a foundation for the next PreK-12 GCE 2025 Conference, which will have a larger scale and open the discussion of Ikeda’s GCE to a wider audience.

2023 Conference

The conference was facilitated by 11 working group members and four student research assistants. SIGS executive advisor, Andrea Bartoli, and external advisor, Monte Joffee, enriched the program by providing insight into the projects that the participants created. The participants inspired each other to spread and implement GCE in their educational environments in Canada, Nepal, Japan, Malaysia, and the US. They divided into three groups and initiated their projects to implement GCE in their context. The program ended with the participants providing their lesson plans at the final presentation.

Resources

Videos

News

Working Group Fellows

  • Monte Joffee (Adviser)
  • Prakash Bista
  • Scott Bower
  • Ryan Hayashi
  • Lisa McMillan
  • Kimberly Mitchell
  • Julie Nagashima
  • Ruby Nagashima
  • Sari Nakatani
  • Ramon Paras
  • Maria Sanchez
  • Nitesh Sil
  • Erika Starzynski
  • Tenji Takino
  • Allie Wong

2025 Global Citizenship Education Conference

View Tentative Schedule
Download Conference Flyer

Overview

Date: July 10 to July 13, 2025

Place: Soka University of America (1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656)

Objectives:

  • To bring together PreK-12 educators to discuss, advance, and implement GCE based on Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of education to actualize the potential and happiness of children.
  • To provide a platform for practitioners to deepen their understanding of Ikeda’s visions for GCE, share their stories and experiences, and inspire creative and practical approaches to implementing GCE in their practice.

 

Participants: PreK-12 (Pre-kindergarten through grade 12) teachers, school leaders, administrative staff, and educational specialists (e.g. sports instructors and counselors) from all over the world are eligible for this conference.

Conference structure: Small group workshops, experiences, panel discussions, and keynote speeches.

Session theme:

  • Curriculum Development
  • Leadership
  • Character Education
  • Professional Development & Personal Growth

 

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Fernando Reimers (Virtual Keynote)

Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education
Faculty Chair, Global, International, and Comparative Education
Concentration at Harvard University

Dr. Melissa Bradford

Doctoral Program Coordinator; Senior Professional Lecturer
Department of Leadership, Language and Curriculum Educational Leadership at DePaul University

Mr. Monte Joffee

SIGS GCE Project Adviser
Chairperson and Founding Principal of the Renaissance Charter School

Participation fee: The participant fee of 200 USD includes meals and optional accommodation on the SUA campus (a first-come-first-served basis). Financial assistance and childcare support may be available upon request.

Participation Style: Zoom participation is available. However, online participants will be limited to viewing the experiences, keynote lectures, and panel discussions. Access to the interactive sessions on the various themes will not be provided.

Application process: Due to the limited number of seats, all applicants will be considered to ensure a diverse representation of different professions in the field of education at the conference.

SUBMIT APPLICATION FORM BY MARCH 31ST

Apply Now

If interested in presenting your research or work

If interested in presenting your research/work at the conference, please submit your completed application with answers to the following questions to SIGS@soka.edu. The application deadline is March 31st, 2025, and notifications will be sent in March 2025.

  1. Please select a session format you prefer:
    1. Workshops (hands-on sessions that equip participants with practical tools or techniques they can immediately apply),
    2. Round table discussions (exchange ideas and collaboratively solve problems on a chosen theme), or
    3. Presentations (sharing research, case studies, or theoretical insights).
  2. What motivates you to apply to be a presenter? (100 words) Which topic within the chosen theme are you planning to present?
  3. Please provide a brief proposal of the session you’d like to lead in relation to the theme and what you hope the audience will take away. (300 words)

If you have any questions, please email us at SIGS@soka.edu.

Tentative Schedule

Date Time
Thursday, July 10 3:00 PM: Check-in
*Campus Tours (Optional)
Friday, July 11 9:00 AM: Opening Session
10:00 AM: Experience
Keynote Lecture by Mr. Joffee
11:30 AM: Discussion on Core Principles
1:30 PM: Session 1
3:30 PM: Session 2
4:30 PM: Keynote Lecture by Dr. Bradford
Saturday, July 12 9:00 AM: Experience
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Reimers
10:00 AM: Session 3
1:00 PM: Session 4
3:00 PM: Panel Discussion
4:30 PM: Session 5
Sunday, July 13 9:00 AM: Final Session
Share reflections, their takeaway, and their future vision