The 3rd International Conference on Ikeda/Soka Studies in Education, hosted by the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University in the United States, was held for three days from August 17, 2023. Under the theme: Interdependence, Literary Selfhood, and the Restoration of Humanity, sessions were held in-person on the first two days, with the third day held online. The three-day conference featured over 60 presentations held in 20 sessions, and lively discussions on the latest research on Soka education were held.

On August 17, Professor Watanabe presented in the session titled “Enacting Human Education in K-12 Curriculum Across Disciplines.”

In this session, she presented on “Actualizing Daisaku Ikeda’s Education Proposals in Tokyo Soka Elementary School”, discussing founder Ikeda’s educational proposals in 1984, 2000, and 2001. She also introduced several news articles, discussing the three elements of “wholeness, creativity, and globalization” discussed in the proposal, and the lessons of being able to “learn together” conducted at Soka Elementary School.

The Q&A session was held after the presentation, where education on reading books, and the practice of teaching students to read books in different countries were discussed on a deeper level.

After the conference, Professor Watanabe commented, “The international conference was held in-person for the first time in 5 years at DePaul University after the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was impressed by the wide range of perspectives by the doctoral students at DePaul University who had continued their research on Soka Education. I was able to have meaningful exchanges with many Soka Education researchers from the United States, Europe, and Asia and to gain perspectives on the directions and trends in the research of Soka Education in North America. It was a valuable opportunity for my future research.”