1. Rebecca Fisher PhD Researcher
The Global Sustainability Institute;
Anglia Ruskin University;
Research Fellow of the Schumacher Institute, Royal Society for the Arts and the Cambridge Philosophical Society

2. Thesis title
Exploring and evaluating the (non-economic) impact of sustainability education using the Eden Project as a case study.

4. “The volume of education has increased and continues to increase, yet so do pollution, exhaustion of resources, and the dangers of ecological catastrophe. If still more education is to save us, it would have to be education of a different kind: an education that takes us into the depth of things.” E F Schumacher (written 1974, published 1997)

7. Research Questions Research aim
What unique contributions does informal sustainability education make in meeting sustainability challenges?
Research Questions
How is the (non-economic) impact of informal sustainability education currently measured and reported?
What impacts do organisations that create informal sustainability education experiences aspire to?
What are the observed and reported experiences of those who engage with informal sustainability education? What impacts do they feel these experiences have on them?
How can a framework to measure the (non-economic) impact of informal sustainability education be utilised to enable organisations to meet their aspirations in this field?

8. Method An autoethnographic investigation combining:
Research Question 1 
Eden Project’s document analysis
Academic literature review
Research Question 2
Focus groups at the Eden Project’s staff at the “gathering”
Interviews with staff members and senior management at the Eden Project
Observation and experience-based fieldwork with team members at the Eden Project

9. Method 2 Research question 3 Research Question 4
Observation and experience-based fieldwork with visitors
Short emergent interviews with visitors
Short follow up Interviews with visitors – 2 weeks later
Research Question 4
Test the created framework

10. Institutional and Subject Excellence
Breaking boundaries
Informal Education
Impact and evaluation
developing policy
Public engagement
Widening participation

11. For the love of a PHD

12. Rebecca Fisher PhD Researcher
The Global Sustainability Institute;
Anglia Ruskin University;
Research Fellow of the Schumacher Institute, Royal Society for the Arts and the Cambridge Philosophical Society
@Reb_Fisher
linkedin.com/in/rebecca-fisher /