Metaphor

Why a metaphor?
When asked to think of a teacher and then list any attributes, pages and pages result. However, when asked to think of 'teacher-as-a-police-officer' or 'teacher-as-a-gardener', fewer attributes with more consensus result. For example, the former presents a watchful authoritarian while the latter presents an attentive nurturer. A recent study shows such textual and visual metaphors create a link for pre-service teachers between their personal beliefs and the professional knowledge they are learning (Price & McGee, 2009).

So, the hope is an acceptance of 'literature-review-as-a-travel-brochure' to assist those of us having a challenge seeing how to produce our literature review. We have learned how conceptual mapping and conferencing with Dr. Whiteley gives us focus. We have spoken of our journey throughout the Master's courses in general terms. So why not look at the literature review as a travel brochure: telling others why we chose our particular journey, describing what others have found that went before us and what we expect to experience during the journey.

For our comparisons, we will use P&W's Chapter 9 (pp. 201-222) for literature review examples and ask you to choose any one of the [|travel brochures] on the linked site. Once you have seen our similarities and differences, please try the exercise with materials you find helpful.

Similarities
Generally, both examples are writing from their personal experiences with the topic. Each has chosen criteria to support their conclusions. For each piece of writing, headings and subheadings guide and direct the readers through the writing. The following table uses AlphaCentre Handout, //What is a Literature Review?// (pdf download) as the attributes of a literature review. Column Two (P&W Chapter 9) and Column Three (Travel Brochure) shows where these attributes were found by our group. (From //What is a Literature Review?//) ||~ === ===
 * ~ ===Attribute===

P&W Chapter 9
||~ === ===

Travel Brochure
||
 * ====Selecting Sources for the Literature Review (p.3)==== || # What does empirical research literature tell us about mainstream teachers' attitudes towards integration and, more recently, inclusion?
 * 1) What factors might impact on the formation of these attitudes?
 * 2) What possible directions for future research? (p.203) || # What does the tourist industry tell us about travelers' attitudes towards the areas features?
 * 3) What factors might impact on the formation of these attitudes?
 * 4) What possible travel directions would interest the audience in the future? ||
 * ====Writing —Introduction (pp. 3-4):====

Provides background on the topic and sources covered
|| **Answers Q1 above: Heading:** Background (aka Introduction) (p. 202) //Sub heading:// The review process (pp. 202-204) After the Table of Contents, a general introduction of what one will find in the brochure and information about the agency producing the materials. ||
 * Heading:** Overview of research on teachers' attitude towards integration (pp. 204-206)
 * Heading:** Overview of research on teachers' attitude towards inclusion (p. 207) || **Answers Q1 above:**
 * ====Body — (p. 4):====

Creates criteria for the critique
|| **Answers Q2 above: Heading:** Factors influencing teachers' attitudes (p. 208) //Subheading:// Child-related variables (pp. 208-210)

//Subheading:// Teacher-related variables (pp. 210-214) NOTE //italicized headings at beginning of factors: Gender, Age and teaching experience, Grade level taught, Experience of contact, Training, Teachers' beliefs, Teachers' socio-political views//

//Subheading:// Educational environment-related variables (pp. 214-216) || **Answers Q2 above:** Synopsis by area, country or town of what others have done and seen. || Heading:** Conclusion: implications for practice, policy and research (pp. 216-218) NOTE sets of bullets, after the discussion by the authors, to emphasize findings to answer questions in Introduction: Q1: Empirical research tells us that mainstream teachers have differing views, based on students' disabilities (p. 216) Q2: Factors that impact on the formulation of these attitudes (pp. 217-218) Q3: Possible directions for research -- starts with justification of why the kind of research required is necessary: Last two sentences before subheading — **However, although the research... in this field.** (p.218) — introduces the next //subheading.// //Subheading:// Towards more sophisticated research (pp. 218-219) || **Answers Q3 above:** Providing a discussion of who might be interested in such travel and how a future traveler may use the materials ||
 * ====Conclusion: Drawing everything together and restating any major changes==== || **Answers Q3 above:

Differences

 * 1) A literature review is [|discursive prose] that requires logic, order and coherence while a travel brochure is a [|pamphlet] that highlights the setting of the experiences.
 * 2) It is not the norm for literature reviews to be scattered with figures, pictures or tables, rather a possibility of a conceptual map . The allure of most travel brochures are the pictures with tables and figures provide great amounts of information in a small amount of space.