TEDx Events as Platforms for Social Change: Influence of TEDxAzadiStreet on Mindset Shifts

Abstract

Using the idea of global promotion of the TEDx movement in its turn, TEDx events have become a powerful tool that promotes the community of exchanging ideas and questioning the status quo. This paper discusses TEDxAzadiStreet, an autonomously run TEDx talk in Karachi, Pakistan, as a change agent in social terms by highlighting how the mindset shifts. A quantitative research design was used to gather survey data of participants of TEDxAzadiStreet by using a variance-based structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 3.0. The associations were examined between mindset changes, leader growth, and involvement of the community. The findings showed that the role of mindset shift in mediating between leadership development and community engagement is important, as it plays the central role in facilitating social change. The results also suggest that listening to various stories and concepts in TEDx help in critical thinking, open the minds of persons, and encourage them to be active in the communities they live in. The proposed research will help in the expanding the field of research on the topic of non-traditional educational platforms by placing TEDx as a global change driver at a local level. It not only offers theoretical information about the transformative learning but also offers recommendations that teachers, policy-makers and organizers of events should put into practice so that such initiatives can be used by more people in the society.