Operational Guidelines for Consortium Partners: Guidelines for the Administration of the Survey on Epistemic Resilience to Misinformation and the Implementation of Focus Groups on Civic (Dis)Engagement
Abstract & Methodological Framework
This working paper delivers the conceptual framework, methodological design, and strict operational instructions necessary for the synchronized cross-country data collection phase of the I-CIVIC project, serving as an Operational Task Guideline for WP1 – Task 1.3. Developed under the significant leadership and coordination of Prof. Alessandra Romano and Prof. Alessandra Viviani from the University of Siena, and co-designed collaboratively with Prof. Steven Watson (University of Cambridge), Prof. Michal Molcho (University of Galway), and Prof. Ted Fleming (Maynooth University), this document serves as a standard protocol to ensure consistency and data harmony across all participating European partners.
The guidelines establish a complementary mixed-methods approach designed to investigate how young people navigate contemporary information environments and experience civic participation within educational settings, specifically targeting I-CIVIC Consortium Project Partners and institutional researchers as its primary audience.
The first component detailed in the text is the Epistemic Resilience Questionnaire, a quantitative tool that moves away from traditional individualistic “deficit models” of susceptibility to misinformation. This survey adopts an innovative Autopoietic Ecology (AE) framing to evaluate students’ capabilities, social and institutional support systems, and structural constraints – such as information fatigue or time pressure – when interacting with digital environments. The second component consists of the Transformative Focus Groups, a qualitative protocol driven by Transformative Learning (TL) theories and non-linear narrative storytelling. This tool outlines a structure for “radical conversations” where facilitators are guided to explore underlying power dynamics, experiences of social recognition, and systemic barriers, including gender and socioeconomic factors, that influence youth engagement or disengagement.
Implementation and Centralized Operations
To optimize field research and secure cross-site data harmony, the working paper outlines specific institutional tasks for the implementation phase.
Following consensus within the consortium, quantitative data collection is streamlined into a single, official Google Form managed directly by the I-CIVIC institutional account to prevent fragmentation and comply strictly with GDPR. Furthermore, differentiated institutional roles are mapped out to separate fieldwork execution, designated for academic and non-academic partners. The full document includes the comprehensive activity schedule, target audience specifications, the core 14-item survey protocol, the four-phase focus group operational track, and the extensive theoretical frameworks detailed in Appendices A and B.
Download the official document:
FocusGroup_QuestionnaireGuidelines_def
