Vicki Mokuria
Soka University of America, Masters Program, Graduate Student
As schools and universities are under attack for educating students about race, racism, and other topics with deep roots that directly link to our current societal challenges, we must find and utilize meaningful tools of resistance. This... more
As schools and universities are under attack for educating students about race, racism, and other topics with deep roots that directly link to our current societal challenges, we must find and utilize meaningful tools of resistance. This article is a collaborative auto-ethnographic narrative inquiry that presents the stories of two professors and two students who engaged in the reflective work of critical family history (CFH). Currently, merely mentioning the word racism is so troubling to many politicians whose ideas are rooted in White supremacist ideology that laws are being passed in the U.S. to ban books on certain topics about race and LGBTQIA+ issues so that students cannot even read about these topics. A Tennessee law recently passed in both the state House and Senate seriously diminishes and limits how professors teach putative “divisive topics” related to race and its societal impact at the college level. A valuable teaching tool, critical family history, offers an impactf...
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The three articles that comprise this dissertation use narrative inquiry as a method to explore how Soka, or “value-creating” education, which originated in Japan in the 1930s, has been applied to show the transformative power of this... more
The three articles that comprise this dissertation use narrative inquiry as a method to explore how Soka, or “value-creating” education, which originated in Japan in the 1930s, has been applied to show the transformative power of this educational philosophy—centering on the heart and attitude of teachers. The first article is an autoethnographic piece that maps my life experiences that lead me to embrace Soka educational philosophy and apply it to my life as a mother and teacher. The second article consists of a collaborative auto-ethnographic article that highlights how I engaged with 4 undergraduate students and how we worked together to create a process that allowed us to excavate ways racism influenced our identities. The second article simultaneously serves as a model of the narrative term of “teachers as curriculum makers” and also, “Soka education in action” in a liminal space at our university. The third article explores how self-identified Soka educators in Brazil who work ...
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This paper explores the benefits and value of college students' conducting critical family history (CFH) projects, which may serve as curricular material to expand students' understanding of complex aspects of history and immigration.... more
This paper explores the benefits and value of college students' conducting critical family history (CFH) projects, which may serve as curricular material to expand students' understanding of complex aspects of history and immigration. This article unpacks how one student came to see herself and others from a deeper perspective, particularly through the lens of someone who chose to continue digging into her enslaved ancestors' roots. Using narrative inquiry, a college instructor and former student collaboratively reflect on the lessons learned from using a CFH project in a college-level class primarily for preservice teachers. A unique aspect of this paper is that it gives voice to a former student in the class, which provides a way of seeing the complexities and dehumanizing components of the lives of enslaved Africans in the U.S.-often sanitized out of history books. In addition, a university librarian suggests approaches to genealogical research, by focusing more on the lived experiences of ancestors that go beyond dates and locations. The perspectives from both a former student and the college instructor add multiple dimensions on lessons learned from a critical family history project, which uses students' family histories as funds of knowledge as the primary curriculum.
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In this session, five new faculty members in the Department of Education Studies at SFA share how they are working to foster equity and inclusion in their programs, research, and community. Their work is situated within both the... more
In this session, five new faculty members in the Department of Education Studies at SFA share how they are working to foster equity and inclusion in their programs, research, and community. Their work is situated within both the elementary and secondary levels and various subject areas. The presenters will discuss how entering into faculty positions in the midst of a global pandemic and during a heightened climate of racial, political and civil unrest have shaped and informed their pedagogical practices. Their personal and collective interest in culturally responsive pedagogy and issues of equity, inclusion and social justice have enabled these professors to create and foster a community of collaboration
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This paper provides an approach for social studies education that includes investigative research into an old school building that has traditionally served predominantly African American children, along with a narrative inquiry into the... more
This paper provides an approach for social studies education that includes investigative research into an old school building that has traditionally served predominantly African American children, along with a narrative inquiry into the experiences of one of that school's former students. We offer a unique approach to experiential global citizenship education, in conjunction with an exemplar of this kind of social studies research. The first half of this paper is a "building biography" of N. W. Harllee School, followed by memories of Dr. Njoki McElroy, who attended Harllee as a young child. In the US, African American life is often misrepresented, devalued, or completely expunged from history books and historical documents. The implication of this novel approach to uncovering the truth about the education of African Americans in the 1930s is that educators around the world can use a similar approach to honor and highlight voices of marginalized people, creating rightfu...
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This article explores collegiate Black identity development when African American students attend predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the United States, considering the overall impact of total marginality. The term “total... more
This article explores collegiate Black identity development when African American students attend predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the United States, considering the overall impact of total marginality. The term “total marginality” is used to describe the myriad, chronic, and often inescapable ways that African American college students attending PWIs are marginalized in a college setting. The focus of this paper is the impact of total marginality on Black identity development for those African American collegians who successfully complete their university studies at a PWI.
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The authors present an overview of narrative research and focus primarily on narrative inquiry, highlighting what distinguishes this approach from other research methods. Narrative inquiry allows scholars to go beyond positivism and... more
The authors present an overview of narrative research and focus primarily on narrative inquiry, highlighting what distinguishes this approach from other research methods. Narrative inquiry allows scholars to go beyond positivism and explore how research can be conducted based on participants' stories, rather than using a purely scientific methodological approach. This research method acknowledges and honors narrative truths and provides a scholarly framework that makes space for voices often marginalized or excluded when dominant narratives and/or data hold a prominent place in a research agenda. As such, narrative inquiry can be used in academic research to challenge the status quo, thus harnessing research to stretch beyond hegemonic ways of being and knowing. The authors provide a robust overview and conceptualization of this approach, along with foundational concepts and exemplars that comprise this method of research.
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This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of self-identified Soka educators in a PreK-12th grade school in São Paulo, Brazil, as well as volunteers through a program called “Soka Education in Action.” Through their narratives, the... more
This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of self-identified Soka educators in a PreK-12th grade school in São Paulo, Brazil, as well as volunteers through a program called “Soka Education in Action.” Through their narratives, the role of care in value-creating education is explored as a critical aspect of education that supports students’ academic and personal growth and development, as well as educators’ professional identity and self-actualization. This study clarifies the essential qualities of Soka educators as understood and articulated by practitioners in the field. The narratives shared by study participants illuminate Soka education as a catalyst that fosters global citizenship by encouraging students to recognize their roles as agents of societal change and instruments of social justice.
This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of self-identified Soka educators in a PreK-12th grade school in São Paulo, Brazil, as well as volunteers through a program called “Soka Education in Action.” Through their narratives, the... more
This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of self-identified Soka educators in a PreK-12th grade school in São Paulo, Brazil, as well as volunteers through a program called “Soka Education in Action.” Through their narratives, the role of care in value-creating education is explored as a critical aspect of education that supports students’ academic and personal growth and development, as well as educators’ professional identity and self-actualization. This study clarifies the essential qualities of Soka educators as understood and articulated by practitioners in the field. The narratives shared by study participants illuminate Soka education as a catalyst that fosters global citizenship by encouraging students to recognize their roles as agents of societal change and instruments of social justice.