Informal Education and the Theory of Impact for GCE
Date: Tuesday 24 March, 10.30am – 12pm
Location: Online
IDEA is inviting our members working in the area of informal education, public engagement and awareness-raising to a meeting on the Theory of Impact for GCE model and tool on Tuesday 24 March from 10.30am – 12 midday online.
In 2025, IDEA launched a Theory of Impact for GCE model, developed in collaboration with our members. Since then, we are working on the development of a tool to collect data aligned with the model, and how to visualise the collective impact of the GCE sector.
As the tool is developed, there is an emphasis on activities taking place in settings of formal education (early years, primary, post-primary, higher education) and non-formal education (Adult, Community and youth work) as it is easier to gather data on the results of these activities. As a result, some members are wondering if and how informal education and/or public engagement aligns to the Theory of Impact for GCE and how best to include it or not. From the Irish Aid GCE Strategy (2021-2025), informal education is described as distinct from formal and non-formal education as: ‘all the other ways that people learn throughout their lives: from each other, from the media including social media, from visiting museums, libraries and exhibitions.’
We would like to discuss this with IDEA members active in all types of informal education initiatives and public awareness raising on global justice issues, such as media, film screenings, public lectures, Church outreach, photo exhibitions, engaging with volunteers etc.
We invite you to a 90-minute online Zoom discussion, facilitated by IDEA Staff working on the Theory of Impact for GCE (Lizzy Noone and Elaine Mahon). This meeting will explore the nuances between depth and scale of engagement, and how we can better capture the transformative journey of our participants through our Theory of Impact model. We encourage all attending to review the Theory of Impact model in advance.
We hope to have an open discussion to share about the informal education activities in your work and how you measure the results of this work. If you don’t work directly on informal education in your organisation, we would really appreciate it if you encouraged your colleagues who do, to come along and participate in the conversation.
Register below!
