Writing as Weaving

There are many metaphors we use to describe the act of writing. Today, I experience writing as weaving. I looked at the different ideas I have collected over two months and sorted over four days, and put like ideas together, and today, I started weaving some of these like ideas together, chaining them logically to other like ideas, and then putting this chunk in a position relative to other chunks.

It feels like weaving, knitting, or sewing, because I am doing intricate work. I look at the words of each idea to find similarities. For example, I see something in common between what Jackson (1995) says that teachers may deliver more than promised when they tell stories and what Benjamin (1968) says about how narrative achieves an amplitude that information lacks. Both ideas tell us that stories can give us more than what we are expecting, that there is potential in stories. So I will allow these two separate threads to intertwine into a thicker and stronger thread that will form an argument in my literature review.

Idea Synthesis Day

Tomorrow is the day! Tomorrow is literature synthesis day. I've been reading up on narratives and storytelling and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) the past two months. Tomorrow is the day I print out the various ideas I've collected and do a manual sorting, organization of these ideas to make a case for my study and I'm pretty excited about it. I think the way things unfolded, how my interest developed told me that the better methodology to use is the case study method rather than narrative inquiry, which can be still used as some sort of lens.

I have been waiting for this day for two months... to be finally able to make some sense out of what I've read. I hope I have read enough to do this. But even if not, this initial analysis would show me where the gaps of my reading are and help me be more directed in my search for the literature.

I've also discovered the German Didaktik through the module I'm taking with Prof. Deng Zongyi, which excites me because this method/model/theory is pretty in line with the kinds of outcomes expected in incidental storytelling in the classroom and it is also sometimes compared to PCK. :) I think when a teacher tells a story, there is a move away from hardcore knowledge transmission to some kind of there's something different for every student to gain. And this... is that potential of storytelling as a tool and also stresses on the autonomy and professionalism of teachers. How cool is that!

Writing the literature review

Among the many advice I've seen on writing the literature review, seldom do people remind you about currency. It is actually important that the resources you referred to in the writing of your article/thesis/book are current. I think this is why a book for every generation on the same topic is reasonable and logical. It is why we don't often read out-of-print books and why publishers don't reprint them, because they are meant for an audience from the past and the knowledge which supported those books are no longer as relevant for today's audience.

So I am going to quote from one of my favourite writing books called Writing Literature Reviews by Jose L. Galvan:

When you have finished reading the articles you have collected, you should re-evaluate your entire reference list to ensure that it is complete and up-to-date. A literature review should demonstrate that it represents the latest work done in the subject area. As a rule of thumb, use a 5-year span from the present as a tentative limit of coverage, keeping in mind that you will extend your research further back when it is warranted... However, remember that the reader of a literature review expects that you have reported on the most current research available. Thus, you should make it explicit your reasons for including articles that are not current (e.g., Is it a landmark study? Does it present the only evidence available on a given topic? Does it help you to understand the evolution of a research technique?). (p. 42)

Reference:
Galvan, J. L. (2013). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (5 ed.). California: Pyrczak Publishing.

Story Telling Time!

Okay! I'm done with a revising of the Introduction. One problem I face is that I begin with much enthusiasm but by the time I reach the last few paragraphs of the text, I tire out and don't edit them as well. So next time I need to also start from back to front to give those back material a chance.

But now, I will look at my Literature Review so that when I do my Discussion, I will be better about to connect my findings to the wider literature.

So here is a reminder of what the literature review is all about:

Areas of inquiry within disciplines exist as ongoing conversations among authors and theorists. By way of your literature review, you join the conversation - first by listening to what is being said and then by formulating a comment designed to advance the dialogue. The literature review thus involves locating and assimilating what is already known and then entering the conversation from a critical and creative standpoint. As Torraco (2005) defines it, "The integrative literature review is a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated" (p. 356). Ultimately, your review "tells a story" by critically analyzing the literature and arriving at a specific conclusion about it. (p. 74) Linda Dale Bloomberg and Marie Volpe in Completing your Qualitative Dissertation: A Road Map from Beginning to End (2nd ed.)

Cumulative efforts

As I am working on my Findings, I also find that I have to work on my Literature Review. Only then, I can work on my Discussion. So this passage motivates me to write my Literature Review and I want to share it with you. It's also from Harry Wolcott's book but now page 76:

Another role theory plays - and could play to a greater extent - addresses a nagging shortcoming in qualitative study: our individual and collective failure to make our efforts cumulative. Every study tends to be one-of-a-kind, largely because of the fierce independence of most qualitative researchers and the limited scope of what any one individual can accomplish. A small step in this regard, in addition to a more generous spirit in recognizing the relevant work of others, might be for each of us to make better use of our own earlier studies in interpreting our later ones, to make our individual efforts cumulative over time, such as pursuing different aspects of a central issue or studying a common phenomenon from different perspectives.

I find myself doing such things as I had written the literature review. I was trying to bring together many individual studies together in a way that pursued the topic on hand differently or from a different perspective. It made doing the literature review more fun. :)

The two types of literature reviews

So there are two types of review in doing a thesis, the beginning one when you craft your proposal and the ending one when you are writing your thesis! The following is cited from Kamler and Thomas (2014): "

• the scoping review. This review sets out to create an agenda for future research. It documents what is already known about a topic, and then focuses on the gaps, niches, disputes, blank and blind spots. It delineates key concepts, questions and theories in order to refine research question(s) and justify an approach to be taken.
• the traditional review. This is somewhat like a scoping review, but its argument is not to create the space for a research project. It is to position a piece of research that has already been undertaken. In essence the reader gets what's-already-known, plus the newly conducted research as the contribution. The literature is used to locate the what-we-now-know-that-we-didn't-before-and-why-this-is-important. Some texts and themes from the initial scoping review are omitted, and other things are now emphasized in order to make clear the connections and continuities, similarities and differences of the new research to what's gone before. 

 ...One justifies the research to be done, the other locates the contribution in the field of completed research... The initial text has to be modified - not just because more has been read, but because the purpose and argument are different." (p.52)

Kamler, B. and Thomson, P. (2014) Helping doctoral students write: Pedagogies for supervision (2nd Edition) Florence, KY: Routledge

Re-reading articles used in the literature review

To give you an update of where I'm at doing my thesis. I have collected sufficient data. I have done preliminary analysis, enough to have written two papers that I hope can be published. However, in the process of doing those two papers, I realized that I want to reorganize the way I present my findings, which also means, I want to reanalyze my data. I have been analyzing it thematically, however, recently I realized the strength of using a case study approach is not found in identifying common themes across cases, but finding nuances and complexities within cases. However, owing to the way I have been analyzing data, I have not been able to capture all these nuances within in each. (They were good for finding cool ideas for papers though.)

But also because of this change of emphasis, I will need to change how I did my literature review. It probably means that a lot of what I have read would become less important in significance, but a few key articles would increase in significance. I am thinking of doing it this way in order to be able to rightly position my paper. Writing the papers for publication made me realized that I have been too broad and expansive in review previously and I want to narrow down and be more focused.

So the next step for me is to re-read those key articles that specifically talk about TEACHERS and patriotism. Rather than just PATRIOTISM in general. I will be better able to show the gaps this way... And next step also, to re-organize my findings section. It will be good. Currently there is too much discussion in my findings section. However if I write them case by case, I could more clearly delineate each teacher and later on discuss on findings separately in the discussion section. I believe this would tidy up things quite a lot.

It's already end September... Year ends are usually more busy for me... But my goal is still to complete my thesis within this Semester. But I am not going to kill myself over it. If really cannot, then I will extend by one more Semester, though it's not ideal because I don't need 6 months to write.

The following passage comforts me, at the thought of re-reading my articles to write my literature review...

...remember that in qualitative inquiry reviewing literature is an ongoing process that cannot be completed before data collection and analysis. As you reflect upon the data you collect, you will realize the need to review previously unexamined literature of both substantive and theoretical nature...Regard reviewing literature in interactive terms. You can learn different things from the work of others depending on what you already have learned and what you need to know. You may find yourself both dismayed and pleased to benefit later from material read earlier but overlooked because you lacked the experience to recognize it as beneficial. (p. 32)

Glesne, C. 2011. Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Boston, MA: Pearson.

The literature review

"The review of related literature involves the systematic identification, location, and analysis of material related to the research problem... A key objective of the literature review is to provide a clear and balanced picture of current leading concepts, theories, and data relevant to your topic or subject of study. The material, although consisting of what has been searched, located, obtained, and read, is not merely a simplistic summative description of the contents of articles and books, nor is it a series of isolated summaries of previous studies. Your readers are being asked to view this literature review as representing the sum of the current knowledge on the topic, as well as your ability to think critically about it.

Areas of inquiry within disciplines exist as ongoing conversations among authors and theorists. By way of your literature review, you join the conversation - first by listening to what is being said and then by formulating a comment designed to advance the dialogue. The literature review thus involves locating and assimilating what is already known and then entering the conservation from a critical and creative standpoint. As Torraco (2005) defines it, "The integrative literature review is a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated" (p. 356). Ultimately, your review "tells a story" by critically analyzing the literature and arriving at specific conclusions about it." (p. 74)

Bloomberg, L. D., & Volpe, M. Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end (2 ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc.