To what extent can we as teaching artists create a global discourse relating to youth identity, to dismantle and disrupt the hegemonic narratives surrounding youth identity?

Inspired by the living newspaper, “Call 2 Action” is a new digital collaborative approach to Applied Theatre developed by Clara Bloomfield and Khairina Khalid. This online platform fosters positive relationships, celebrates global citizenship, and nurtures creative learning spaces that promote collaborative art-making as a catalyst for change.

This Think Tank studied the most recent newspaper edition, which included an international cohort of young people exploring the power-laden relationships between self and society. Through the lens of social justice, the young participants listened to a variety of different viewpoints and analyzed their own experiences, debated ideas and made mindful choices about how to represent their own political truths. Through the crossing of geographical and cultural borders, this project provided the arena for both young participants, and their audience, to explore their relationship and experiences of their world, which led to acts of personal and social change.

Afterward, the hosts were eager to recruit teaching artists for their forthcoming ITAC innovators application to create a global Teaching Artists Edition of Call 2 Action, which aims to provide the tools to explore our personal agency as teaching artists as a catalyst for change.

For those who see the power of action research, a Working Group will spring from this session to create a user-friendly Handbook on Action Research that serves the global field.