Composition Forum 54, Summer 2024
http://compositionforum.com/issue/54/

Contemplative Pedagogy Supporting Undergraduate Writing Groups

Debbie Goss and Wenqi Cui

Abstract: University students can become overwhelmed and hopeless as they pursue their final capstone writing projects. They are also navigating trying times of overlapping crises such as poverty, environmental decay, and war. To address these challenges, our Capstone Writing Groups (CWG) are designed to develop students’ writerly competence and enhance global citizenship traits of wisdom, courage, and compassion by utilizing contemplative and sōka strategies. Our group sessions focus on “good” writing, time management, and self-care strategies. The findings indicate that our writing groups enhanced participants’ writerly identity, writing skills, and critical reflection. They also fostered sōka global citizenship traits. We advocate for contemplative approaches and sōka global citizenship education to provide a human touch to supporting student writing.

Good writing comes from the heart and stirs its reader. Notably, such writing often comes from the most trying of times. Today, our students are navigating such trying times. In the vertiginous abyss of overlapping crises such as poverty, environmental decay, and war, students can become overwhelmed and hopeless. As they write their way into their disciplines, college students wrestle with their lack of confidence, anxieties, and doubts amidst these overlapping crises. To further complicate students’ ontological writing processes, artificial language models such as ChatGPT are now providing automated writing assistance to students without human interaction. ChatGPT is too new to know the full scope of benefits or consequences, but we have some concerns about its inability to provide students with a human touch desperately needed in a world of competing crises. The human touch offered by contemplative practices and global citizenship education housed in a writing center-sponsored capstone writing group may facilitate writing from the heart that stirs its reader.

That is, in the midst of unprecedented global turmoil, fourth-year undergraduate students are faced with decisions about work, graduate school, and other significant life choices. While thinking about and preparing for what to do after they graduate, students simultaneously often challenge a capstone writing project where they perform extended research on a subject of their choice. As Robert Hauhart and Jon Grahe put it in Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses, “The senior capstone can be a scintillating and intellectually challenging summation to the undergraduate experience” (x). But students are often underprepared (Hauhart and Grahe; McKinney and Day).

University writing centers offer many resources to assist not only the “underprepared,” but all capstone writers in their culminating project. In addition to tutoring, workshops, and retreats, writing centers can serve capstone writers through writing groups (e.g., Anderson and Murphy; Hambrick and Giaimo).

The Writing Group

Academic writing groups are not new. According to Anne Ruggles Gere, one of the first instances of a writing group may have been the Spy Club at Harvard University, initiated in 1719. Members of this “club” and similar university models that followed suit around the U.S. engaged in verbal debates and exchanged critiques of constituents’ written prose. These “writing groups” continued throughout the 1800s, where members would improve their writing skills by reading their work together and getting feedback from other members of the group. Gere’s research on the benefits of these groups showed that participants reduced mechanical errors, increased motivation, improved critical thinking, and heightened audience awareness. Much later, Donald Murray argued that the optimal environment for learning to write is when students participate in small groups while “editing each other’s papers” (110). Writing groups became appealing to teachers, scholars, and writers in various disciplines, professional contexts, and communities for these reasons and because of their flexible forms and multifaceted benefits.

Writing group models vary depending on their purposes and participants. These groups are classroom-based, community-based, teacher-instructed, or writing center tutor-facilitated, among others; however, they “commonly involve multiple meetings over a period of time where writers may set goals, develop texts, offer each other peer support, and make progress on their writing” (Cui et al. 2–3). Benefits of writing groups include helping members develop writing abilities and rhetorical awareness, making writing progress, gaining confidence, becoming self-regulated, increasing time management skills, and offering emotional and social support (Cui et al.; Ferguson; Gradin et al.; Lindsay; Lockheart; McMurray; Wegener et al.). Cui et al. also found participants “became less critical of themselves, they procrastinated less, and they had more knowledge about their thesis/dissertation journey” (10).

Considering its benefits, flexible structures, and adaptable meetings and activities, writing groups have been widely used to support advanced writers who usually work independently on their thesis, dissertation, or projects for publication (Cui et al.; Ferguson; Gradin et al.; Lindsay; Lockheart; McMurray; Wegener et al.). Some writing center practitioners and administrators explored using writing groups to support undergraduates’ writing (Gilewicz). However, there is a lack of research on how writing groups can support undergraduates’ capstone projects. Incorporating contemplative pedagogies to foster global citizens in writing groups opens a new trajectory of inquiry within the field of composition studies. In light of the multiple social and planetary emergencies students work within, we see a need for the human touch offered by contemplative and global citizenship pedagogies. Therefore, we sought answers to the following research questions:

• How can contemplative and sōka approaches be integrated into writing groups?

• How do contemplative and sōka pedagogies in writing groups enhance writerly identity, writing skills, and peer collaboration?

• How do contemplative and sōka pedagogies foster Ikeda’s global citizenship traits of wisdom, courage, and compassion in writing groups?

In what follows, we share a snapshot of SUA, the context of our research site, its global citizenship mission, and how contemplative practices can support the school’s ethos. With this in mind, we sought to integrate contemplative approaches in our writing groups to support students’ writing as global citizens.

Soka University of America Capstone Writing Groups

Soka University of America

Daisaku Ikeda founded Soka University of America (SUA) to enact Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’s theory of value-creating pedagogy, sōka. Makiguchi, the founder of value-creating pedagogy, advocates for drawing out the full potential of each student by stimulating their inherent ability to challenge and overcome inner weaknesses— “to thrive in the midst of society’s sometimes stringent realities, and to generate new victories for the human future” (Ikeda, Light of Learning 9–10). Sōka forms the foundation of SUA and the 15 other kindergarten through university-level Soka schools in Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore. This sōka education means educating for the happiness of each student; it is an educational approach that encourages students to flourish themselves and help others flourish at the same time.

SUA is located in south Orange County, California, among rolling canyons fit with deer, coyotes, raccoons, and bobcats; the 103-acre campus creates a sense of coexistence with nature. The landscaping includes colorful indigenous plants intentionally designed to harmonize with the natural ebbs and flows of the land. From the outset, SUA has prioritized language learning and strong writing skills throughout the curriculum.

The Writing Center opened its doors in 2001, the same day the first classes started. Initially, the center served the first class of 120 students. The glass double-doored entrance opens to a colorful lounge that features student artwork and some cozy furniture where students frequently lounge, study, or chat with friends. Nowadays, the center is staffed with professional and peer tutors supporting about 450 students. “Post” COVID, the center offers in-person and synchronous online appointments where tutors discuss the full spectrum of writerly needs with students at any and all stages of the process. In addition to one-to-one consultations, the center offers workshops and special events such as “Calligraphy Night,” the “Boba Write-In,” and “Capstone Crunch.”

In 2021, the Writing Center launched its Capstone Writing group to support seniors writing their capstones. The capstone is a required year-long research project students complete during their senior year. The capstone allows students to delve deeply into a topic of interest related to their concentration, applying skills and knowledge they have acquired over the course of their undergraduate studies. For many of these seniors, empirical research is new. They often seek help in staying organized and motivated. Our writing groups apply the blended approach of contemplative and sōka pedagogies to improve student writing and accelerate their ontological global citizenry as they navigate their way through this extensive writing project.

Contemplative Pedagogies to Foster Global Citizens

SUA’s value-creating education ties closely to contemplative pedagogies. Both emphasize the connection of oneself with others, the enrichment of the inner world and outer world, and collaborative learning.

The contemplative approach emphasizes the interconnection between the inner and outer world (Barbezat and Bush). That is, students engage in exploring their “internal relationship” with course materials and learning as well as the connection of their “inner world to the outer world” (Barbezat and Bush 5). This way, learning becomes personal and meaningful for students, which deepens their understanding of subject matter. Meanwhile, by inquiring about their connection to others, students develop insight into their roles in society and their relationships with the world. As a result, students become more aware of their emotions and their reactions. They also develop compassion as an outcome of these “intra- and interpersonal connection[s]” (Barbezat and Bush 14). Self-awareness, emotional regulation, and social connectivity not only increase students’ intellectual skills, productivity, creativity, and insight (Ambrose et al.; Barbezat and Bush) but also “produce[…] better-balanced citizens in the long run” (Barbezat and Bush 8).

This study looks at value-creating pedagogy, sōka, to suggest its compatibility with contemplative pedagogies. For instance, the sōka approach seeks to highlight the interconnectedness of life—what I do affects a broad and deep network of people, places, and things. It cultivates the courage to learn from those who are different through dialogic engagement. In fact, from the perspective of sōka, such intercultural dialogues are key to mitigating social and environmental injustice. The sōka ethos also embraces and cultivates the characteristics of compassion, meaning the development of the ability to empathize even with those we have never met in places we have never been. From the sōka perspective, these are essential traits for global citizens (Ikeda, Light of Learning). For Ikeda, the founder of SUA, value-creating global citizenship means:

all the world’s peoples are one people, and that the various peoples who inhabit this same planet must overcome any discriminatory consciousness and feelings of hostility that arise from differences in borders, language, customs and living environment, awaken to the reality that we form a community bound by a common destiny, and live in harmonious coexistence. (qtd. in Goulah xix)

In pursuit of this harmonious coexistence as global citizens, excellence in writing, recognition of the interconnectedness of all life, the courage to learn from others who are different, and development of compassion for oneself and others are essential. This is why the contemplative practices of reflection, interconnectedness, learning from difference, and compassion are both contemplative practices and essential in the pedagogy of sōka. In this way, we see contemplative pedagogies as a seamless fit at SUA, the site of this study, and at other university settings that seek to foster leaders who can grapple with various global issues. Specifically, we see writing center-sponsored undergraduate capstone writing groups as poised to provide rich writing support for students and a time and space to develop global citizenship traits.

Writing Competence

Capstone writing groups integrating contemplative and sōka pedagogies advance students’ writing abilities. According to Ikeda, the purpose for teaching writing is to help students accurately convey their “inner being” (New Human Revolution 66). Ikeda describes writing as “a reflection of your heart,” the kind of writing that helps the reader expand their own life-state, to move forward, to muster courage, to have hope, and to break new ground. These are all necessary qualities for cultivating and sustaining a sense of global citizenry. Ikeda’s definition of good writing as writing that accurately articulates students’ “inner being” (66) strongly resembles contemplative pedagogy scholars’ (e.g., Barbezat and Bush; Jackson) emphasis on helping students tap their inner souls. For example, contemplative practices “foster a rich environment for learning and provides the opportunity for students to cultivate attention, deepen their understanding of their studies . . . and stimulate profound inquiries into the nature of themselves and the world around them” (Barbezat and Bush 20). This strong resemblance in defining writing competence through both a contemplative and sōka lens also manifests in the mutual goal of realizing our social and ecological interconnectedness.

Interconnectedness

Fostering an understanding of interconnectedness underpins both contemplative and sōka pedagogies. As Jerrie Cobb Scott puts it, “writing involves human interaction as well as solitary performance” (x). A starting point for understanding interconnectedness with others is understanding interconnectedness within oneself. Also necessary to understand how our lives are interconnected is collaboration in a group. The social interactions at play in writing groups benefit writers in multiple ways. As Brian Jackson points out in Teaching Mindful Writers, “Peer interactions have a profoundly positive impact on student growth” (143). Successful group collaboration creates a safe environment where participants freely engage with each other through active listening, asking questions, and building friendships. According to Jackson, “In successful groups, everyone talks and everyone listens—in and with their bodies” (148), which builds camaraderie and fosters friendships in the group. With time, a sense of accountability grows, and students begin to understand that their contributions to the group are connected to the success of each group member. Collaborative learning in a writing group helps students learn more, enjoy the process of writing more, and be motivated more (Jackson). This collaborative experience can, in turn, prompt students to see similar connections with others beyond the immediate group.

This collaborative nature of writing groups may help to reveal what Daisaku Ikeda refers to as the global citizenship trait of wisdom—that is, “the wisdom to perceive the interconnectedness of all life” (Ikeda, Light of Learning 6). As Ikeda explains “Nothing and nobody exists in isolation. Each individual being functions to create the environment that sustains all other existences” (Ikeda, Mahayana Buddhism 173). Awareness of the symbiotic interconnections of all life, both sentient and insentient, magnifies respect for people and planet while diminishing reactions such as prejudice and disrespect. Global citizenship encourages students to change themselves first, through the “inner reformation of the self” (Ikeda, Dear Global Citizens 33). Engaging in such inner revolution changes the world collectively.

The contemplative and sōka practices both enhance awareness of the interconnectedness of all life. Working collaboratively and simultaneously looking inward help students see that all life is interconnected (Ikeda, Light of Learning).

Learning from Difference

Collaborative practices that enhance awareness of interconnectedness also provoke students to learn from others, another key feature of sōka. The community-building characteristic of contemplative praxis allows students to “become more adept at creating meaning with one another and taking themselves and each other seriously” (Kinane 12). When students experience outcomes of contemplative practices, such as being more present and developing “a deepened sense of meaning and purpose” (Komjathy 14), they heighten their ability to learn from others. This learning can also be applied to learning “to live well as engaged citizens and embodied beings in catastrophic times” (Raine 71).

This open stance toward others can reduce environmental, cultural, racial, economic, and political divides. From the sōka lens, this stance translates to courage: “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” (Ikeda, Light of Learning 6). The characteristic of courageously respecting others gives rise to creating meaning and inner growth. Like contemplative practice, openness to others is the core means of learning in the sōka tradition.

Developing Compassion

A contemplative approach “promotes the exploration of “meaning, purpose, and values to seek and serve our common human future” (Barbezat and Bush xv). Barbezat and Bush argue that students want more from their college experience than just knowledge. Students want their education to be more than “writing papers and developing skills to earn a living. . . [it] is really about caring for each other and making the world a livable place” (174). To do so, students need to learn to put themselves in another’s shoes and have compassion for others. Compassion means thinking of another’s suffering and trying to mitigate it. Fostering compassion occurs when academic content connects to global issues and the people suffering as a result. This requires inner reflection and inner transformation. To have compassion for others requires earnest effort to transform oneself. Then, through learning from others, inner compassion arises. Barbezat and Bush argue that “cultivation of connection and compassion may be the most important learning we can provide” (175). We agree.

In both contemplative and sōka pedagogies, compassion for others links to compassion for oneself. They are mutually inclusive. In other words, by trying to care for another, we are simultaneously helping ourselves. Through pedagogies that help students think of how what happens here may affect others in distant places, students start to put themselves in the other’s shoes. In doing so, they can gain a greater understanding of the pain and suffering as well as the joys that another may be experiencing. Compassion, in fact, is a requisite for global citizenship, along with wisdom and courage. Sōka compassion means “to maintain an imaginative empathy that reaches beyond one’s immediate surroundings and extends to those suffering in distant places” (Ikeda, Living as Learning 6). Inherently, both contemplative and sōka pedagogies highlight compassion; together, they respond to students’ needs to make the world a better place. Accordingly, our SUA capstone writing groups combined contemplative and sōka pedagogies to cultivate students’ writing ability and global citizenship characteristics.

SUA Capstone Writing Group Design

Our groups follow the graduate writing group (GWG) model at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), adapted to the undergraduates at SUA (see Cui et al., 2022). The model includes three types of activities: 1) goal-setting and goal-check-ins; 2) interactive mini-lessons on time management, self-editing strategies, revision, handling feedback, and work/life/classwork balance; and 3) peer review workshops, in which group members give and receive feedback (see Figure 1).

Although the IUP model caters to thesis and dissertation writers, we thought the same model could be adapted to fit senior capstone writers at the undergraduate level. Furthermore, we wanted to see if we could integrate contemplative pedagogies to enhance the global citizenship traits of wisdom, courage, and compassion. With this in mind, we tweaked the IUP model to fit the SUA Capstone Writing Groups (CWGs).

Each group includes 3-6 students who meet for 90 minutes every week or two over the semester. The participants are serious about their writing, yet the writing group atmosphere is relaxed, open, and friendly. Writing Center staff provide coffee, tea, sparkling water, and snacks to make group members comfortable and well-nourished. The groups are facilitated by a writing center tutor who offers mini-lessons, leads discussions, and supports peer review workshops. These facilitators were trained on their roles and the specific writing group curriculum were developed to foster global citizens utilizing contemplative strategies. Debbie and the facilitators also had regular meetings in between writing group sessions where they discussed the previous session and potential modifications for future sessions. Debbie also supported several of the sessions herself, which helped her to see first-hand how the sessions were going.

The Curriculum

We structured the curriculum to develop students’ writing abilities and to encourage the contemplative practices of reflection, interconnectedness, learning from difference, and compassion. Participants reflect on themselves, collaborate with and support members of the group, acknowledge the importance of self-care strategies, and develop the capacity to have meaningful conversations about themselves through their papers. As such, students can “go beyond a merely cognitive understanding of their responsibilities as global citizens and find an authentic motivation to serve” (Chen 149). These activities also support the goal of SUA, to “foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life” (“Mission and Values”). From the first session, group members reflect on their writing process. Both contemplative and sōka employ self-reflection to empower students to draw out their agentive writerly authority. As Writing Studies scholar Kathleen Yancey asserts, the act of reflection crystallizes the entire process of learning to write from “start to finish” (5). By encouraging students to reflect on what they are doing—what they are learning through the process of writing—students “find themselves” (Barbezat and Bush xv). In this way, writing group facilitators “create lines of purpose and strong ethical and creative minds” (xv). Importantly, they create a space for students to “inquire deeply into their own meaning and find themselves in the center of their learning” (Barbezat and Bush xv). Reflection develops writing competence by uncovering students’ inner selves and the writing processes that work for them (Jackson 44). As Jackson aptly puts it, what matters is for writers to reveal their “souls” (44).

Reflection is a crucial aspect of sōka education as well. The process of reflection helps students connect what they are learning in the writing groups with their own knowledge. According to Makiguchi, helping students establish this connection to their prior knowledge (through reflection) is a primary responsibility of teachers:

One starts to grasp an idea only when the idea is assimilated within the group of other ideas one possesses and that is when the idea starts to stay in one’s mind. As apperception is the most important mental process in developing one’s mind, the achievement of that mental action must be the most important work to be carried out in teaching. (qtd. in Ito 93). [1]

Reflection not only helps students assimilate new knowledge with existing knowledge, it also aids in students’ discovery of their inner souls and subsequent joy of learning.

Informed by the above scholarship, the reflection in our writing groups occurred through discussions and mini-lessons. Students are presented with new information and then are provided with a space for reflection. For example, in the mini-lesson focused on time management and student life balance, students are presented with information and scholarship about work-life balance, physical health (e.g., diet, exercise, sleep), mental health, support systems, and self-care strategies. Next, group members reflect on self-care strategies in their daily routines and share with each other. In this way, reflection helps these writers connect their new knowledge with pre-existing knowledge—how they are already thinking about self-care. Once students reflect on how they already care for themselves and how the new knowledge presented by the writing group facilitator might enhance their daily self-care practices, they are asked to create and write self-care goals. Students then write their goals on the whiteboard (see Figure 2).

In one session, after writing their goals on the board, the group members—Nouf, Chou, and Dana (pseudonyms)—looked at what each other had written and discussed their goals more deeply. For instance, Chou had a goal of writing affirmations in her journal as a method of self-care. The group members discussed this goal in further detail; they were interested in this strategy. Chou explained that she wrote down positive things about herself either in the form of quotes she had found or in descriptions she created on her own. This reflection-oriented discussion led to further action on the journaling goal. Nouf later began her own journaling initiative, but instead journaled about her capstone progress. This capstone journaling helped Nouf breakthrough when she felt stuck. In addition, several group members then slightly modified their goals based on learning about the other group members' goals such as adjusting the duration of daily walk-time, and developing healthy eating and drinking habits. In this way, by reflecting on their own goals and also discussing the other group members’ goals, they were able to refine their own thinking and hone their objectives, build connections with each other, as well as learn from people with diverse perspectives and experiences.

Our writing groups not only aim to enhance students’ writing ability but also to develop students’ empathy with others and connection to global issues. Often, students feel overwhelmed with their capstone projects, a common phenomenon for seniors writing capstones (see Hauhart and Grahe). In the group discussions, students collaborate with peers, support each other, and discuss the implications and contributions of each other’s writing projects. For example, they encourage each other to look at their writing from multiple perspectives. When readers ask for further clarification of different points, this helps writers identify gaps in their own written expressions and stimulate them to think about the broader implications of their writing. The students also observe how each of their peers’ personalities and voices come through clearly in their papers. By noticing these different writing styles, students feel empowered to employ their own unique voice to their writing. These types of mindful approaches inspire students to explore their project’s meaning, purpose, and values to themselves, others, and society. It helps them reveal their souls and write to better the world. In this, contemplative praxis and sōka global citizenship education are interwoven.

These modifications informed by sōka and contemplative pedagogies, are included throughout the various writing group activities such as reflection, peer review, dialogue, and mini-lessons, especially focusing on the connection of inner world and outer world. The activities aim to enhance writing competence, raise awareness of interconnectedness, encourage learning from difference, and cultivate compassion.

The Assessment

We assessed our writing groups through pre and post surveys and interviews to investigate students’ experiences and expectations. Importantly, we looked at the impacts of contemplative and sōka pedagogies on students in writing groups.

Our Students. They were senior SUA students actively working on their Capstones, their elongated final writing project required for graduation. These students are from different concentrations, including Life Sciences, Humanities, Social Behavioral Sciences, International Studies, Social Behavioral Sciences, and Environmental Studies. Students were both domestic and international.

Assessment Method. In this study, we used pre-survey and post-survey responses as well as the interview data to investigate the group members’ experiences with our writing groups. The survey questions utilized in this study were derived from Cui et al.'s study, modified to suit the specific focus of our research. In the presurvey (see Appendix A), we looked at our students’ self-reported writing abilities, writing progress, writing habits, challenges, their understanding of the Capstone project, writing as ontological global citizens, and their expectations of our writing groups. In the post-survey (see Appendix B), we added additional questions asking about their experiences of attending the writing groups. After the writing group post-surveys were completed, we conducted an interview with some students, asking them to further talk about their experiences in the writing group in order to get a richer understanding of what was accomplished (see Appendix C).

To answer our research questions, we read and compared the students’ responses to pre and post-survey questions to look for what changed and what did not. Additionally, we read and reread the interview transcripts looking for patterns and themes. The information from the interviews supplemented and corroborated the responses from the surveys.

Although our study had a small sample size and a low response to our surveys, it shows how these students experienced our capstone writing groups infused with sōka and contemplative methodologies. It gives us ideas about how to enact contemplative and sōka pedagogies in a writing group. Additionally, it sheds light on the students’ self-reported perceptions of the writing group and their experiences with these blended pedagogies.

Outcomes

In this study, we examined the impact of contemplative and sōka pedagogies in writing groups. Our findings indicate that our writing groups enhanced participants’ writerly identity, writing skills, motivation, and peer collaboration. It also fostered sōka global citizenship traits of wisdom, courage, and compassion (Ikeda, Light of Learning). They conveyed that their writing expertise improved, and they were able to identify points of interconnectedness, learning from each other, and having compassion for themselves and others.

Reports of Writing Competence

In the pre and post surveys, participants self-reported perceptions of their writing progress, writing skills, time management, and writerly development. The survey responses indicate that scores increased in the post survey compared with those in the presurvey. We found that writing group participants better integrated feedback from their advisors and felt connected to and supported by the writing group facilitators and members. They reported gains in confidence as writers, better focus, and better time management. Importantly, they stated that they knew better what to say and how to say it in their writing. They also reported they were better able to navigate through writing blockages and that they increased progress on their capstones.

Rick, one of our interviewees, expressed that the group was very helpful regarding his writing process and skills, including brainstorming, making an outline, clarifying ideas, writing paragraphs, finding sources, and revision and editing. Rick also received support from peers: “Being with other people was helpful because of working on the project together, holding each other accountable, and encouraging each other and supporting each other.” Rick further contended that the writing group helped him set goals and make writing progress. Notably, the listening and sharing in the group helped him grow into “a better writer” and “make my ideas clear not just to myself but also to other people.” Lastly, Rick mentioned “writing is not an isolated process.” He appreciated the support from his facilitator and advisor. Because of the support, he reported that he “stayed motivated and continued making progress.”

What is worth noting is that one student’s response in their post survey indicates that after attending the writing group, they were less certain of the direction they were taking in their capstone, less confident of their writing skills, and less adept at setting and meeting goals. This may be attributed to the design of the survey question. Overall, though, the results show increases in writing competence, including ability to reflect and revise, strengthen their authorial voice, and improve progress on their work.

Reports of Strengthened Global Citizenship Traits

To investigate how contemplative and sōka pedagogies in our writing groups fostered participants’ global citizenship traits, we compared the participants’ responses to the pre and post surveys. We found that, overall, the scores in the post survey were higher than those in the pre-survey. The participants were able to better see the interconnectedness with their inner and outer world. For example, in the surveys, participants’ scores showed that students “believed their writing reflected the ethos of a global citizen,” “connected with many people,” “benefitted themselves and society and/or the planet,” “created friendship,” and “learned from other writers.”

These findings show that our writing groups encouraged these capstone writers’ awareness of global citizenship including finding their “inner selves” (Jackson 44), connecting with others and outside society, and learning from difference, which are essential to both contemplative and sōka pedagogies.

Firstly, our writing groups offered opportunities in peer review workshops and mini-lesson discussion activities for students to listen to each other and learn from their differences. We note that this type of interconnectedness came from both peer capstone writers and group facilitators. For example, Rick shared that he primarily learned from his group facilitator. There are multiple ways students can learn from differences. Our original intention was for group members to learn from their peers; however, Rick pointed out that he learned more from his facilitator. At the same time, many other students reported learning from their peers. All in all, the groups provide many opportunities to learn whether from peers or from facilitators. In the writing groups, students can learn in multiple ways from others. Getting together to discuss a common writing project creates such a robust learning environment.

Further, in our writing groups, students encouraged and supported each other, thus fostering compassion. The post-survey responses show that participants “created friendships through the process of researching and writing [the] capstone project.” The discussions with other groups members strengthened students’ engagement of their capstone projects and understanding of global citizenship traits. In an interview, Rick stated:

[I]n order for me to write, I need to do research and reflection, especially in my research, by researching the problems and sufferings of other people, the process of writing and researching pushed me to try to understand the sufferings of other people more. Or in distant places … In my research, I use writing to talk about some of the sufferings that people go through. I think that’s one way my writing reflects one ethos of global citizenship, which is compassion.

Rick was able to arouse more compassion by researching and reflecting on various people’s sufferings he was reading about in the literature related to his capstone. He became more aware of this when he wrote about other’s suffering he discovered through his research. He developed this trait largely through his independent work, but the writing group provided the opportunity to exchange his ideas with peers; hence, he strengthened his compassion for those in the midst of various global issues.

Overall, the designed activities and events in our writing groups encourage students to explore themselves as a writer, establish the interconnectedness of their writing to their peers and readers, and develop the compassion to contribute to a better future for all living and Mother Earth.

Concluding Thoughts

Our journey of weaving contemplative and sōka pedagogies in undergraduate capstone writing groups proved fruitful. Overall, the combined approaches worked well to support undergraduate writers in terms of peer collaboration, critical self-reflection, and creative disposition to writing and to the world. Our results of the pre- and post-surveys as well as interviews with the student participants revealed some key findings.

Our findings are consistent with prior literature: writing groups support participants’ writing abilities, time management strategies, and writing progress (Cui et al.; Ferguson; Gradin et al.; Lindsay; Lockhart; McMurray; Wegener et al.). Our students emphasized the benefits of support from the facilitator in terms of each stage of their writing process including brainstorming, drafting, researching, revising, and editing. This is essential when students do not have the writing competence needed for their capstone project (Hauhart and Grahe). What we found was that a facilitator can support students by incorporating content or materials (e.g., threshold writing concepts, rhetorical strategies, revision skills) to improve writing skills.

In addition, our writing groups encourage contemplative and sōka reflection by engaging students in reflecting on their own writing as well as sharing with and learning from each other through discussions and giving feedback to each other. These activities deepen students’ understanding of writing purpose, audience awareness, and rhetorical flexibility, helping students become better writers.

Contemplative and sōka pedagogies cultivate students’ awareness of interconnectedness and compassion through dialogue. Our participants grew such global citizenship traits (Ikeda, Light of Learning). They also learned from the differences between the participants in the groups as members were from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds and also from different academic concentrations. Because of the diversity of the groups, members were able to experience intercultural and interscholastic growth. Through the exchanges during the writing group sessions, the participants developed collaborative relationships; they also cultivated compassion for one another as they navigated through their capstone writing processes.

We found that these writing groups filled a void in these trying times, when the human touch is so desperately needed. As artificial language models emerge and tensions around the world increase, contemplative and sōka together provide this humanistic education. These writing groups offer students a place where they can interact outside the classroom in a supportive, semi-structured space that remains academic yet enjoyable.

Despite the students’ positive experiences, our groups faced challenges. One challenge was the meeting schedules. Though we attempted to accommodate students’ different schedules, many students could not attend all the writing group sessions because of conflicting allegiances. In the future, we may offer more times and modalities to improve attendance. Still, overall results were positive.

We started this study in hopes of discovering how effective contemplative and sōka practices were in improving writing and global citizenship traits in writing center-sponsored capstone writing groups. In the end, while we found this to be true, we also discovered that writing groups infused with contemplative and sōka pedagogies are particularly reflective, dialogical, compassionate, empathetic, and respectful of differences. These characteristics make us human. We hope our journey to weave contemplative and sōka pedagogies in writing groups can inspire similar applications in different educational contexts. We invite other concerned educators and scholars to join us in the journey of cultivating global citizenship traits. These trying and uncertain times cry for this human touch.

Appendices

Appendix A: Pre-Survey

Five-Point Likert Statements

1. I am confident in my writing abilities.

2. I can easily focus on my capstone writing.

3. When I feel stuck with my writing, I am able to easily navigate around the blockage.

4. I often tell myself I should be a better or more effective writer.

5. I often compare or judge my progress by the perceived progress of others.

6. I’m not always certain of the direction I’m taking with my Capstone.

7. I am able to manage my Capstone writing time effectively.

8. Often when I am stuck or am not progressing as planned in my writing, I berate myself.

9. I often procrastinate my writing.

10. I set writing goals for myself.

11. I am able to meet writing goals that I set for myself.

12. When I sit down to write, I feel like I know what I am going to do during each writing session.

13. I feel supported when interacting with my capstone advisor.

14. I often use the feedback I receive from my advisor to revise my draft.

15. I feel isolated as a writer.

16. My ideas are clearly articulated in my writing.

17. I am currently satisfied with my writing productivity.

18. I am making good progress on my capstone.

19. I believe my writing reflects the ethos of a global citizen.

20. As part of my writing process, I connect with many people.

21. I believe my writing is appealing to my readers.

22. I believe my Capstone project is benefitting me.

23. I believe my Capstone project benefits society and/or the planet.

24. Through my Capstone project, I am helping to mitigate a global environmental or social problem.

25. I believe I am creating friendships through the process of researching and writing my capstone project.

26. I believe I can improve my writing by learning from other Capstone writers, even if their topics might be very different.

Open-Ended Question

27. What do you hope to get out of our writing group?

Appendix B: Post-Survey

Five-Point Likert Scale Statements

1. The writing group was supportive.

2. The writing group helped me make progress on my Capstone.

3. I would recommend the Capstone writing group to others.

4. Two weeks was a good amount of time between meeting sessions.

5. Ninety minutes was the right length of time for each group meeting.

---

6. I am confident in my writing abilities.

7. I can easily focus on my Capstone writing.

8. When I feel stuck with my writing, I am able to easily navigate around the blockage.

9. I often tell myself I should be a better or more effective writer.

10. I often compare or judge my progress by the perceived progress of others.

11. I’m not always certain of the direction I’m taking with my Capstone.

12. I am able to manage my Capstone writing time effectively.

13. Often when I am stuck or am not progressing as planned in my writing, I berate myself.

14. I often procrastinate my writing.

15. I set writing goals for myself.

16. I am able to meet writing goals that I set for myself.

17. When I sit down to write, I feel like I know what I am going to do during each writing session.

18. I feel supported when interacting with my Capstone advisor.

19. I often use the feedback I receive from my advisor to revise my draft.

20. I feel isolated as a writer.

21. My ideas are clearly articulated in my writing.

22. I am currently satisfied with my writing productivity.

23. I am making good progress on my Capstone.

24. I believe my writing reflects the ethos of a global citizen.

25. As part of my writing process, I connect with many people.

26. I believe my writing is appealing to my readers.

27. I believe my Capstone project is benefitting me.

28. I believe my Capstone project benefits society and/or the planet.

29. Through my Capstone project, I am helping to mitigate a global environmental or social problem.

30. I believe I am creating friendships through the process of researching and writing my Capstone project.

31. I believe I can improve my writing by learning from other Capstone writers, even if their topics might be very different.

Open-Ended Question

32. How has the Capstone Writing Group helped you as a writer?

Appendix C: Interview Questions

1. In what ways was the Capstone Writing Group helpful for you?

2. In what ways were you able to contribute to the group?

3. Part of participating in a writing group necessitates reflection on your own writing and time management practices. In what ways do you think the writing group strengthened your ability to reflect on yourself as a writer?

4. In what ways do you think the Writing Group strengthened your ability to reflect on yourself as a researcher?

5. In what ways did the CWG discussions help you understand yourself as a writer who benefits yourself and others?

6. In what ways do you believe your writing reflects the ethos of a global citizen?

7. What are some ways the CWG could be improved?

Notes

[1] Freidrich Herbart and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi highly valued the concept of apperception. For us, this means understanding a new experience by connecting it to existing knowledge.

Works Cited

Ambrose, Susan A., Michael. W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Maisha C. Lovett, and Marie K. Norman. How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Wiley, 2010.

Anderson, Julie A., and Susan W. Murphy. Bringing the Writing Center into the Classroom: A Case Study of Writing Groups. Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom, edited by Beverly J. Moss et al., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004, pp. 49–59.

Barbezat, Daniel P., and Mirabai Bush. Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning. Wiley, 2013.

Chen, Franklin M. Contemplative Practices for Teaching the Sciences. Contemplative Practices and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies for Higher Education: Bridging the Disciplines, edited by Greta Gaard & Bengü Ergüner-Tekinalp, Routledge, 2022, pp.149–167.

Cui, Wenqi, Jing Zhang, and Dana L. Driscoll. Graduate Writing Groups: Evidence-Based Practices for Advanced Graduate Writing Support. Writing Center Journal, vol. 40, no. 2, 2022, pp. 85–102. https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1017.

Ferguson, Therese. The ‘Write’ Skills and More: A Thesis Writing Group for Doctoral Students. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, vol. 33, no. 2, 2009, pp. 285–297.

Gere, Anne Ruggles. Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications. Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Gilewicz, Magdalena. Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom. Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom, edited by Beverly J. Moss et al., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004, pp. 63–78.

Goulah, Jason. Introduction: Daisaku Ikeda, and Hope and Joy in Education. Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda Across Curriculum and Context, edited by Isabel Nuñez and Jason Goulah, Teachers College, 2021, pp. xiii–xxxiv.

Gradin, Sherrie, Jennifer Pauley-Gose, and Candace Stewart. Disciplinary Differences, Rhetorical Resonances: Graduate Writing Groups Beyond the Humanities. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, 2006, pp. 1–4.

Hambrick, Keira M., and Genie Nicole Giaimo. Understanding the Challenges and Needs of International STEM Graduate Students: Implications for Writing Center Writing Groups. Across the Disciplines, vol. 19, no. 1–2, 2022, pp. 7–26.https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2022.19.1-2.02.

Hauhart, Robert C., and Jon E. Grahe. Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses. Jossey-Bass, 2015.

Ikeda, Daisaku. Dear Global Citizens. Soka Student Union, 2021.

———. The Light of Learning: Selected Writings on Education. Middleway P, 2021.

———. Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-First-Century Civilisation. 1993. A New Humanism: The University Addresses of Daisaku Ikeda, Tauris, 2010, pp. 165–175. https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755625550.ch-020.

———. The New Human Revolution, Vol. 18. World Tribune, 2009.

Ito, Takao. The Ability to Write, the Ability to Think: Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’s Composition Teaching Method. Makiguchi Tsunesaburo in the Context of Language, Identity, and Education, edited by Jason Goulah, Routledge, 2018. pp. 85–98.

Jackson, Brian D. Teaching Mindful Writers. Utah State UP, 2020.

Kinane, Karolyn. The Place of Practice in Contemplative Pedagogy and Writing. Across the Disciplines, vol. 16, no. 1, 2019, pp. 6–15.

Komjathy, Louis. Introducing Contemplative Studies. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.

Lindsay, Siân. What Works for Doctoral Students in Completing their Thesis? Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 20, no. 2, 2015, pp. 183–196.

Lockhart, Julia. How Can We Use Writing as a Tool for Collaboration Across Disciplines at Ph.D. Level? Co-Writing Fictional Versions of the Truth about Someone Else. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, vol. 3, no. 3, 2010, pp. 299–315.

McKinney, Kathleen, and Melissa D. Day. A Multi-Institutional Study of Students’ Perceptions and Experiences in the Research-Based Capstone Course in Sociology. Teaching Sociology, vol. 40, no. 2, Apr. 2012, pp. 142–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X12437970.

McMurray, Claire. Writing Groups: An Analysis of Participants’ Expectations and Activities. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, 2019, pp. 52–67.

Mission and Values. Soka University of America, https://www.soka.edu/about/proud-heritage/mission-and-values. Accessed 1 Apr. 2023.

Murray, Donald. A Writer Teaches Writing. Houghton Mifflin, 1968.

Raine, Anne. Literary Reading, Mindfulness, and Climate Justice. Contemplative Practices and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies for Higher Education, by Greta Gaard and Bengü Ergüner-Tekinalp, 1st edition, Routledge, 2022, pp. 71–89. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003201854-7.

Scott, Jerrie Cobb. Forward. Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications. Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Wegener, Charlotte, Ninna Meier, and Karen Ingerslev. Borrowing Brainpower—Sharing Insecurities. Lessons Learned from a Doctoral Peer Writing Group. Studies in Higher Education, vol. 41, no. 6, 2016, pp. 1092–1105.

Yancey, Kathleen. Reflection in the Writing Classroom. Utah State UP, 1998.