Methodology

The project data underlying the material outcomes below stem from intensive interviews with 2,674 students (aged 8-18) in class rooms in seven EU countries (in five countries only adults were targeted) and questionnaires on specific module related topics within the  various projects. Ms. Staszynska and/ or Mr. Hansen were directly involved as instructors in class rooms in three EU countries in which 734 students were present (the Netherlands, Poland and Greece) and indirectly involved in the class rooms in the remaining EU countries. In total 226 teachers and 24 instructors were involved in the projects.

The material outcomes rest heavily on the intensive interviews (“dialogues”) and the questionnaires in settings in which Ms. Staszynska and/ or Mr. Hansen were present. Because of their presence they know the contexts in which the measurements took place. And these contexts are crucial, as will become clear in material outcome 5: the didactics used and the resulting trust level of the relation between instructor(s) and students change the level of student openness and the kind of answers they provide, even though they would be the first to deny this (see material outcome 4).

The data gathered in the class rooms were confronted with the scientific literature that was used to design the project modules and with additional scientific literature that was deemed relevant. An important selection criterion for the additional literature was that it had to be recently published. The data and the selected literature were then compared with relevant research outcomes and relevant news items. “Relevant” for all sources is to be understood as relevant for the central projects’ subject: youngster identities in the context of online communication, new technologies, and visual information. The additional sources stem mostly from countries in Europe and the USA, geographical entities that for purpose of the description of the material outcomes below are taken as one single context, except when stated differently.

Students involved in the various projects per country – direct and indirect