Social innovation education helps students be what they want to be | Dr. Tobias Andreasson | TEDxCQU

This talk will explore, unpack and make an argument for social innovation education. Social innovation education equips students to be what they want to be. It does this by making sure graduates are not just great professionals, they are also adaptive and innovative human beings who can shape their own lives and future destinations. In this talk I will build on this argument and explain that social innovation education is not just another problem-solving activity or all about human centred design, it is an intentional pedagogical approach that is infused with the recognition that all students and graduates will face many challenges in their professional and personal lives, and the better they are equipped to tackle those in creative and collaborative ways, the better the outcomes will be for them, and society at large.

I will draw from my personal experience as a social innovator to clarify and unpack why and how social innovation education needs to provide students with opportunities to develop certain attributes and these attributes can be nurtured by making sure students are getting not just an understanding about social issues (theoretical awareness) but are also given the chance to make things (productive learning) and learn by doing (practice learning).

This is not a lecture, but more a ‘call to arms’ for social innovations education as something that could change and ultimately transform how we approach education and contribute to graduates’ abilities to be what they want to be in a changing, interconnected and complex world. Dr. Tobias Andreasson is Associate Director, Social Innovation at CQUniversity and he works with academics across the schools to explore ways to embed social innovation into the curriculum. Tobias has a diverse background that includes working with different groups and tackling different social challenges. His studies, research, and practice experience as a Social Innovator have all been shaped by his commitment to transforming social challenges and seek better outcomes for people. For example, Tobias has supported and coached organizations with their social enterprise ideas used generative research tools together with people with disabilities in order to understand their needs, taught design thinking and global politics at universities, engaged men from refugee backgrounds in photography classes to learn about their experiences and led teams working in complex social issues in the community. Tobias has a Ph.D. MA (Research) and a Bachelor of Design (Honours). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx