Using information science to enhance educational preventing violent extremism programs

Abstract

Educational preventing violent extremism (EPVE) programs have had (to date) little if any theoretical underpinning. Given their proliferation in jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries, such an absence is notable but not unexpected given the political sensitivities attached to them. These programs remain an emerging policy area which is still "finding its feet," around which their legitimacy and efficacy is keenly debated. This paper argues for adopting theoretical principles drawn from information science research based upon information behavior models to provide a framework for the design and development of such programs and against which their efficacy can be tested. We demonstrate how this approach can be applied through thematic analysis of the theory of change models of EPVE programs implemented in England and Wales, designed to increase awareness and understanding of radicalization among young people, their carers, and professionals. This article is ground breaking and of international significance, being the first to apply learning from information science to practice in furthering policy goals around countering radicalization and extremism in the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions.

Information discernment and the psychophysiological effects of misinformation

“…The empirically grounded Information Discernment Framework outlined below provides an equally nuanced model of the salient factors when people encounter information which are akin to Metaliteracy but derives from different traditions. The strength of the IDF is in its foundation in information behaviour research outwith education (Hepworth, 2004), its testing in both HE (Walton andHepworth, 2011, p.2013) and school domains (Walton et al, 2018) and its application in successfully analysing preventing violent extremism training programmes (Wong et al, 2021). It is remarkably similar to Metaliteracy although it has developed in parallel.…”

“…Information literacy has developed in numerous ways to move beyond a set of normative skills which enable finding, evaluating and using information, to a much more complex concept involving higher order thinking within a social context. Information literacy has developed in a number of directions from individualised practice-based models such as new framework American College and Research Libraries ACRL (2016), the Seven Pillars Model SCONUL (2013), ANZIIL (Bundy, 2004), to models which are research based and have a socio-cultural focus such as Lloyd (2017)) and more complex educational frameworks such as ANCIL Secker and Coonan (2013) to interdisciplinary frameworks such as information discernment (Wong et al , 2021). Many research studies have noted the value of information literacy training for example, Jacobson and Mackey (2013), Jacobson et al (2018) and Mackey (2020), Shenton and Pickard (2012; 2014a, 2014b), Walton and Hepworth (2011, 2013), Walton et al (2018).…”

Information discernment and online reading behaviour: an experiment

“…It has been argued for some time that high levels of information literacy (IL) are regarded as an important part of a successful learning journey in higher education (Secker and Coonan, 2011), every-day life (Whitworth, 2014) and work (Crawford and Irving, 2012) and, therefore, a solution to the issue of poor IL capabilities in young people. The sub-set of cognitive, metacognitive and affective (emotional) capabilities which enable people to make sound judgements about information (known as information discernment) are critical components of IL (Walton and Cleland, 2017;Walton, 2017;Walton et al, 2018a, Wong et al, 2021. These capabilities may hold the key to addressing the issue of misinformation for example fake news (including artificially generated fake textsee Schwartz, 2019), "counter-knowledge" (Sanchez-Casado et al (2015) and "post-truth" at a time when these issues are becoming ever more prevalent and harder to discern in the information landscape (Lewandowsky et al, 2012(Lewandowsky et al, , 2017.…”

“…IL has moved beyond a set of normative skills which enable finding, evaluating and using information, to a diverse set of concepts which involve higher order thinking within a social context. IL has evolved from individualised practice-based models such as ACRL (American College and Research Libraries) new framework (2016), the SCONUL (Society of College and National University Libraries) Seven Pillars Model (2013), ANZIIL (Australia and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy) (Bundy, 2004), to research-based models which have a socio-cultural focus such as Lloyd (2017) and other complex educational frameworks such as ANCIL (A New Curriculum for information Literacy) (Secker and Coonan, 2013) and interdisciplinary frameworks such as information discernment (Wong et al, 2021). IL is characterised as a set of capabilities which "ascends towards high-level intellectual and metacognitive behaviours and approaches" (Secker and Coonan, 2011, p. 20) that may possibly employ heuristics (Metzger et al, 2015) to navigate the Online reading behaviour information landscape (Lloyd, 2010) and ultimately constructively question our relationship with the world (Head, 2017).…”

“…The sub-set of cognitive, metacognitive and affective (emotional) capabilities which enable people to make sound judgements about information (known as information discernment) are critical components of IL (Walton and Cleland, 2017; Walton, 2017; Walton et al. , 2018a, Wong et al. , 2021).…”