Dr Ash Brockwell

About
Ash is an interdisciplinary academic, consultant, and visual artist with an MBiochem in Biochemistry, MSc Environmental Anthropology, and a PhD in Sustainability Education. He has contributed to over 30 publications (most of them in a previous name) in diverse disciplines, including evaluation and program planning, healthcare, biodiversity management, design, and sustainability.
News
Presented a case study of the Encountering Ecosystems module at the ‘Traces of Extinction’ conference at University of Tartu, Estonia, 2024
Appointed as External Examiner for the BA Arts, Ecology, and Systems Change at Black Mountains College.
Teaching
Ash is the module lead for the third-year BASc module ‘Encountering Ecosystems through Mixed Methods Research and Practice’, and co-lead for Problems 2c, an individual project module for second years. He also contributes to teaching on the compulsory first-year BASc module Problems 1b (Environmental Change), focusing on planetary boundaries and ecopsychology, and on the third-year BASc module ‘Mixed Methods and Interdisciplinarity’, with an emphasis on quality and validity in mixed methods research.
Research
Most of Ash’s current research focuses on the mindshifts necessary for tackling complex problems - thinking in terms of networks and relationships, pursuing multiple perspectives, and avoiding rigid or oversimplified approaches. He is also working on a small study of the outcomes of the ‘Encountering Ecosystems’ module. He was the evaluation consultant for the multinational ‘Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures’ project, led by the University of Bristol, and a Research Fellow for a University of Brighton project on helping people to articulate their shared values in relation to urban infrastructure decisions.
Selected publications include:
- Brockwell AJ, Mochizuki Y, Sprague T ****(2022). Designing indicators and assessment tools for SDG Target 4.7: a critique of the current approach and a proposal for an ’Inside-Out’ strategy, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 54(5): 1-19.
- Mitchell R, Wals A, Brockwell AJ (2020). Mobilising capacities for Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures: Opening spaces for collaborative action and learning. University of Bristol: TESF Network Plus Working Paper.
- Brockwell AJ (2019) *Measuring what matters? Exploring the use of values-based indicators in assessing Education for Sustainability.* Wageningen, NL: Wageningen University and Research.
- [Publication written under a previous name], 2016: Can we improve indicator design for complex Sustainable Development Goals? A comparison of a values-based and conventional approach. Sustainability 8(9), 861.
- [Publication written under a previous name], 2013: What is participation? Design leads the way to a cross-disciplinary framework. Design Issues, 29(4): 41-57