Literature Review

Literature Review

Major Course Move & Learning Objective:

Determine the relevant context(s) for a project (e.g., historical, cultural, philosophical, ideological, research contexts) and represent context(s) ethically using collected and curated research (Contextualizing)

Context

Our upcoming Video Essay tasks you with theorizing an aspect of education based on lines of inquiry we have been developing this semester. To contextualize some of the key terms or questions from our individual inquiries, we engaged with texts by collecting research. Now, we will extend this engagement by synthesizing the research into a literature review.

Task

In this assignment, you will synthesize the sources you have collected by creating a literature review, a common genre in academic writing across disciplines that surveys research in order to provide an overview of a given topic or conversation. As you will discover in this week’s activities, literature reviews are typically organized thematically and, by extension, work to foreground thematic connections between texts on a given subject. That is, literature reviews are not mere summaries of a body of research. Rather, they are sites for analysis and for noticing connections and contradictions between texts (synthesis) and the ways those texts are responding to or in conversation with one another (even if they don’t cite each other directly).

Through the act of curating and synthesizing your research, you will ultimately produce a literature review that situates your inquiry into a relevant context (historical, critical, social, and/or disciplinary).

• To begin this process, you will need to collect at least five sources. As you curate your research, you may find that some sources should be left aside or that other paths of research may be necessary in order to contextualize your line of inquiry.
• After determining the sources for consideration in this assignment, you will identify at least two lines of conversations you notice emerging across two or more of the texts. These conversations will provide the structure for your literature review, which will use topical headings to organize its thematic synthesis. During this process, you may need to reconsider your materials — adding or dropping sources from your textual archive as necessary.
• Once you have developed a potential organization for your literature review, you will then begin the work of synthesis by outlining the connections and contradictions between texts under each heading. As needed, return to the Literature Review Conversation Synthesis activity for review.
• Finally, you will construct an introduction that summarizes your inquiry and context and a conclusion that analyzes your findings.

In doing the work outlined above, you will ultimately construct a narrative about the context of your inquiry; signal which contributions to the conversation are important to you; and indicate your own interests by focusing on specific aspects of the research in your curation, synthesis, and analysis.

Form

Your literature review should include the following elements:

1. An introduction section that outlines your line of inquiry and provides a contextual overview of your research;
2. At least five sources you have curated from your research
3. At least two sections with headings that provide a synthesis of your research by noting the intersections or contradictions between texts related to that theme
4. A conclusion section that identifies one or more of the following points of interest you gleaned from constructing the literature review, which you may take up in your Video Essay:
   1. Noteworthy tensions, contradictions, or problems;
   2. Gaps or underrepresented aspects;
   3. Silences or ellisions of voices;
   4. Needs for extending, updating, or revision.
5. A Works Cited page in MLA Format

Evaluative Criteria for the Literature Review:

• Determines relevant context(s) for your research inquiry (e.g., historical, cultural, philosophical, ideological, research contexts)
• Establishes the relationship between the context(s) and your inquiry by exploring relevant conversations
• Makes connections between the context(s) and your values, or what you find important about your inquiry
• Represents the context(s) ethically using collected and curated research
• Utilizes at least five diverse sources