What do you really do in a literature review? Studying the Comparative Politics of Public. Education

Transcription

1 review? Studying Department of Political Science University of Washington QUAL Initiative Winter Series 2016 January 14, 2016 Literature

2 Outline I. The Working II. Begin a New Project III. Create a Coding System V. Final Comments Literature

3 with the Lit What is a literature review? A literature review is designed to identify related research, to set the current research project within a conceptual and theoretical context. (Trochim 2006) Humbling (e.g. nothing new under the sun) Focused on scholarly research Should be done early (and well) Will help identify feasible approaches to question Literature

4 with the Lit Given puzzle and questions of concern: What is wrong (and right) with the extant literature? Theoretically: Relax or alter assumptions entirely? Weak logic in extant approaches? Sound logic, but mechanisms wrong? Refine scope conditions? Empirically: Lack of rigorous and sound analysis? Causal mechanisms tested well, but not effects? Selection or omitted variable bias? Adequate qualitative or quantitative evidence? Literature

5 with the Lit Two approaches: Soak-and-Poke Have question; will Google Systematized...Not so fast Literature

6 Soak-and-Poke Advantages: Let the literature speak to you Can lead to interesting insights Minimally labor-intensive on the front-end Literature

7 Soak-and-Poke Potential pitfalls: Can lead to Wikipedia-like spiral into click-and-download of articles Very labor-intensive on the back-end Re-reading and skimming for important annotations and quotes Can lose sight of research priorities and waste time Literature

8 Systematized Advantages and potential pitfalls: Need to have a general idea of where to start review beforehand Discipline + flexibility is key Not as fun as a Google Scholar-spiral Labor intensive on the front-end Need to map out journey first Minimally labor-intensive on back-end Might need to tech-up a bit and learn how to integrate new tools Literature

9 with the Lit Happy medium can be fruitful - lead with a system to increase your likelihood of finding what you need Literature

10 Useful tools for Lit and more Zotero - for reference management (syncs with some mobile apps) ATLAS.ti - for qualitative data analysis and literature review (collection, organization, and coding) Evernote - for memos, outlines, and quick notes (syncs across devices) Adobe Acrobat Pro or Prizmo (Mac) - for cleaning and creating searchable PDFs Excel - for grabbing relevant descriptive statistics Scrivener - for writing papers with added workflow functionality L A TEX- typesetting language for publication-ready drafts with graphs, figures, or equations Literature

11 The Working Step 1: Organize a working bibliography Download the Zotero plug-in for Firefox or other citation manager Create master working bibliography document in Word, Evernote, or other preferred word processing format Initial map to situate yourself in the literature It will change, but start with a manageable reading list First question to ask yourself: What are the key readings that I can t avoid addressing in my research? Literature

12 The Working Suggestions on organizing readings: By broad themes in main field(s) - situate project within key debates and themes in relevant disciplines By related sub-themes - research related to broad themes that more directly speaks to question By specialized scholarship - research from specialized journals focused Other ideas: By causal mechanisms (microfoundational, structural, ideational) By units of analysis (households, organizations, country-year) Sub-divide and tag by theoretical and/or empirical orientation Tip: Align working bibliography to folders in reference manager software Literature

13 Example: The Comparative Central Puzzle: Why is education reform more politically contentious in some countries and not others? Broad themes: Domination, state-building, nationalism, and democracy Sub-themes: Comparative politics, institutions, welfare states, redistribution Specialized scholarship: comparative education, sociology of education, and education economics Literature

14 Starting a New Project in ATLAS.ti General suggestions: Keep all articles, readings, etc. in one project File names consistent with reference software (i.e. Zotero name - year - short title ) Paste bibliographic citation in memo section after importing document Searchable PDFs ideal (OCR scan of printed material) Keep text/audio/visual evidence for qualitative analysis in separate project from literature review Literature

15 Importing and Grouping Documents Key point: Mirror organization of working bibliography Create document groups that match threads of interest After importing, sort documents into respective groups Document can be a part of more than one group! Literature

16 Example of document grouping Literature

17 Coding Key takeaway: Create a coding system that works for you! Code generously, systematically, and consistently My approach (after trail and error): First, create code groups to organize thoughts and coding strategy Second, make detailed notes of code groups to refer back to Third, revise code and code group labels as needed Literature

18 Example of code grouping Literature

19 Example of coding Literature

20 Mapping the literature Grouping, coding, reading = thinking critically about the pieces of your puzzle Literature

21 Generate an Annotated The memo function in ATLAS.ti is your friend Remember: paste bibliographic citation in document memo Create annotated bibliography format that fits your needs One suggestion: Discipline (political science, sociology, economics) Subfield (political economy, structuralism, economic history) Category in bibliography (Broad themes, sub-themes, specialized lit) Main thesis (abstract-length summary of central argument) Contribution to research question (theory/empirics/assumptions) Limitations (why it falls short) Literature

22 Final Comments There is no one way to conduct a literature review: ATLAS.ti and other software makes it easier to re-interrogate literature regularly Mix and match between digital and analog strategies as needed Keep question in mind but keep eyes open for new puzzles during review Literature