This week, we will be meeting in the library at the reference desk. You will be looking for work that others have already done in your area of interest. This will hopefully inform your practice and research, and maybe even give you new ideas on what to look for or questions to ask. What is it that you already know about writing a literature review?
Now that you've been writing fieldnotes, and perhaps collecting other data, for a number of weeks now, what are some terms and phrases you might look for? What is it that you want to see from other teachers and researchers to support you in exploring your questions?
A large portion of my Masters program as well as my current work in the URI/RIC doctoral program has been dedicated to reviewing published literature in a variety of fields. As I understand it, the literature review serves several purposes. First, When search the lit review proves that I've "done my homework" in reading related literature. In addition, the literature review should give the reader the sense that my research has been well-informed by the prior works done in the field. In essence, I'm not making a major, ground-breaking discovery with my study rather, I am adding a little more knowledge to an already well-investigated topic. Another benefit of the lit review can be found in critically reading the works of other researchers that have examined similar problems. If I find a researcher that I feel has done a quality job, I will borrow various aspects (methodology, constructs, sampling...) from their study to strengthen my own. If the study is poorly done, I can still use it in my literature review but in a different context. For these studies I like to identify these short-comings and explain to the reader why my study will not fall victim to the same underlying issues. I especially like to use this tactic when the flawed study has been widely cited by other informative works in the field as I feel like, if well done, this can elevate the relevance of my work. Also, the literature review can be used to situate my study within the current body of research. By citing other studies I can explain why my particular inquiry is unique. Maybe I use a different methodology or sampling procedure than others... Maybe I ask my research questions in a different way... Maybe I am answering a call from another previously published study that calls for further research in a particular area. Whatever the case, the literature review helps me to convince my readers that this study, executed properly, will be a worth-while addition to the current research. In speaking to my current knowledge about writing a literature review there are several helpful hints I try to keep in mind. First, I tend to construct an outline that serves as the "skeletal structure" around which I build my lit review. I usually make this outline on the actual word document where I plan on writing my lit review using each bullet as a section of the overarching review. In other words, I try to find multiple studies that support each bullited topic. As I fill in each section, I leave myself highlighted notes within the text to remind me of thoughts (that otherwise might escape me) when writing. I continuously re-read my writing for clarity and flow. If I feel like something is dis-jointed I'll copy/paste and edit until it feels right. I will also try to vary my transitions for each paragraph as well as my citations in order to hold the readers' interest. Finally, I feel like I currently have many peer reviewed journals that inform my methodological choices. I also have a large body of research that identifies gender inequity within public school PE particularly during team sports-based units. Where my current lit review falls short is in the large, overarching sorts of articles that will lay the groundwork for introducing my "gender inequity PE" articles in the latter portion of my review. For this, I am thinking that I need to further explore the cornerstones of poststructuralist feminism, particularly the work of Michele Focault. I also need more research on gender studies in schools outside of PE class as well as gender studies in social settings outside of schools. These are the particular types of articles/journals I plan on perusing this upcoming Tuesday in the library.
ReplyDeletePatti Lather, bell hooks, and Michelle Fine might also be worth looking at. They are more theoretical instead of doing research studies, but could definitely inform your conceptual piece.
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ReplyDeleteI know that my literature review has to tell a story. It needs to unfold in a way that starts broad and goes narrow. I also know that this literature review needs to come from a place that is bigger than just Hall’s research about reading identities. This is definitely overwhelming because I spent all of last semester situated in her research and now that box is rapidly expanding. At first ground I was frustrated about that and disappointed because I thought I had a solid ground for my proposal. Now I am back on shaky ground again but I know that is where I need to be if I truly want to consider my students’ reading identities.
ReplyDeleteI’m wondering about talking to other teachers as part of collecting literature for the literature review. On Tuesday I might try to come up with some questions for teachers about how they perceive students as readers and they think students perceive themselves as readers.
The most important term and phrase I need to work with is the term “struggling reader”. As Janet said, “this language is problematic, in that it positions the boys as struggling, when in fact, they may be choosing NOT to be readers for legit reasons.” I don’t have any literature that positions students from an asset-base; rather, I have a lot of literature that says “Hey this student is a struggling reader – how can we fix it?” I still believe that literature has an important place in reading research; however, I am hoping to find studies on Tuesday that position students from an asset-based place similar to Campano. I also would like to check-out Wilhelm’s book “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys”? since I am particularly interested in boys reading identities. In addition, I would like to check out Frank Smith’s book “Members of The Reading Club.” I would like to review some studies by Jim Cummins’ because he talks about negotiating identities for ELLs. Ashley – you might want to check this out too! I might search for reading resistance and more work along the lines of Kohl’s “I Won’t Learn From You”. I also might research more about sociocultural identities of middle school students.
If you want to talk to teachers in regard to the lit review, they should be experts in the field. Remember to check NCTE publications and also LRA/NRC publications. These journals are targeted at English teachers of various levels, depending on the journal. "In the Middle" is the name of the NCTE MS journal, I believe.
DeleteI must admit I feel extremely out of my element with this literature review, and out of my comfort zone. I think I am a little behind and need to research exactly what types of questions I need to place on my student survey, and what I will be asking as a follow up in the student interviews.
ReplyDeleteTime is becoming a factor and although I think I am coming to the understanding that while conducting research there are many twists and turns, I am also discovering that I am not nearly as comfortable with the messiness as I believed I was.
By researching student survey questions and follow up questions I can construct the survey and administer it as soon as possible. I am actually looking forward to giving the students some self-reflection time in the midst of the chaos testing for almost three months has caused! I am wondering: What questions should I be asking them in order to give insight to the bigger questions I am wondering?
I also realize that I need to look at the work of others who have done similar research in these areas to make comparisons and help me to draw and support my conclusions. Krashen, has written a lot about of research about promoting positive reading communities in ELL classrooms/communities. When Kristen suggested, (Thank You!) during our peer editing, that I think about to what researchers I had learned about in my previous TESL classes and Dr. Johnson wrote a comment suggesting I explain why I have the beliefs I do about creating better readers/students. I thought back to Krashen. The reason I am prompted to delve deeper into his research is because I am following researched based theories in my teaching practice and still encountering ELLs reluctant to reading. I would like to familiarize myself again with Krashen tomorrow.
I hope you found some good stuff by him. People love Krashen's work.
DeleteThis research is still very new to me and to be quite honest I am very overwhelmed. At the library this week, I am hoping to find some research that may give me some new ideas about some of the questions I have. I also look forward to finding information about the disparity of gender in the classroom. Hopefully, it will give me some insight on my questions, as I seem to be struggling with one of my sub questions.
ReplyDeleteI also need to develop questions for my student survey. Conducting a search regarding survey questions would be a great help for me. Hopefully, it will enable me to come up with a survey that I can construct and things will become less confusing for me. My research project is quite different than those of my peers that focus on key subject areas. Mine focuses on gender. Maybe that’s why I seem to be struggling. Right now I do not feel comfortable in my literature review project. I hope to change that tomorrow night when I go to the library.
Hopefully you found some good stuff, Brenda. If not, let's look again.
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