Youth Leading Change

This subject explores young people as change-makers and problem-solvers against a backdrop of social transformation in Australia and globally. It provides students with thinking tools for addressing local and global problems in everyday life and skills for leadership. The subject focuses particularly on the Asia-Pacific region, home for forty-five percent of the world’s youth and a geographical area experiencing dramatic social and economic transformations. Students will be supported to critically analyse the significant opportunities (including new mobilities, educational opportunities) and challenges (for example, increasing inequality, high rates of urbanisation and mental health problems) produced by these transformations in our region. The subject positions young people as part of the solution to challenges produced by social change and views young people as the initiators and managers of change, employing different leadership styles. Case studies will be identified and investigated in class, including those related to issues such as: education (formal and non-formal), employment, public policy, law, health, justice, mobilities and migration, and use of digital communication and popular culture.