Mariko Yang-Yoshihara

Mariko Yang-Yoshihara is an Instructor and an Educational Researcher at SPICE interested in driving social impact through curriculum development and research. Currently, she is focused on understanding how constructivist theory-based design thinking principles can 1) foster a more entrepreneurial mindset for adult learners and 2) promote an interdisciplinary STEAM (STEM + Arts/Humanities) approach to innovation for young and adult learners by developing educational curricula and analyzing their impacts. Her research informs the courses she develops and teaches for students ranging from middle to graduate-level across Japan.

Mariko’s academic research has been presented at national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association, the Society of Research into Higher Education, and Japan Society for Research Policy and Innovation Management. Her past research findings have been published in peer-reviewed journals including International Journal of STEM Education, Thinking Skills and Creativity, Classroom Discourse, and Administrative Sciences, as well as in volumes published by the MIT Press, the Tokyo University Press (Japanese), and Hakuto Shobo (Japanese). Additionally, Mariko co-authored a book on STEAM education and design thinking (世界を変えるSTEAM人材―シリコンバレー「デザイン思考」の核心) published by Asahi Shinbun Press in 2019, which has been reprinted and translated into Chinese (title: 硅谷是如何培养创新人才的) by the Zhejiang People’s Publishing House (浙江人民出版社). She also conducts research on administrative career paths within higher education, focusing on the professional identities of those with doctorate degrees working within research management and administration at a global scale. She recently co-edited The Emerald Handbook of Research Administration Around the World that gathered contributions from over 50 countries and regions across Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Middle East (Emerald Publishing, 2023).

In 2016, Mariko co-founded SKY Labo, an educational non-profit based in Japan, with a goal to nurture the next generation of STEAM thinkers. SKY Labo’s inquiry-based program utilizing human-centred pedagogical approaches has garnered official support from the Gender Equality Bureau of Japan’s Cabinet Office in 2019, and was honored with the Semi-Grand Prix of Nissan Foundation’s Rikajyo Ikusei Sho (Award Promoting Next Generation of Women in STEM) in 2022.

Mariko received a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Political Science from Stanford University. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine and a B.A. in Literature from the University of the Sacred Heart in Japan. In addition to her role at SPICE, Mariko is a Visiting Professor at Tohoku University, serving as a faculty member of the School of Engineering and an academic advisor to graduate students in the Department of Management Science and Technology.