Literature review (3000 words)
Completion of this assessment task will enable you to meet Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 8.
Assignment 2 requires you to:
Build on Assignment 1 and the social work topic you identified. The assessment task requires you to examine and critically appraise relevant research knowledge about your chosen social work issue and develop a research question.
In this task, you need to address:
The social work topic (20%): building on AT1, provide a description and discussion of the issue/intervention you seek to research, including:
- Its relevance to social work (5%)
- Relevant context: depending on your topic, this may include background/historical information; statistical data; ways of thinking about or theorising this topic; current concerns/debates (10%), and
- Assuming that “Working toward credible research … demands reflexive awareness of our worldviews and a conscious effort for us to take them into account as we enter into the research journey” (O’Leary, 2017:57), outline your views on your chosen topic, and describe how you have and will continue to ‘take them into account’ throughout the research process, making reference to the reading by O’Leary (2017) (5%)
Critical appraisal of five research articles (50%):
- Describe and critically evaluate the findings presented in five research articles relevant to your topic, to identify current trends and gaps in knowledge, and formulate a research question.
- You must make explicit reference to at least one of the sources from the reading list or used in the learning materials to support and justify your choice of materials, evaluation and conclusions.
The research question (10%):the research question you propose, including definitions of the question’s key terms and a clear rationale for the research focus, commenting on:
- how the research question builds on the existing research literature
- how the research paradigm shapes this question, making specific reference to the core text (Chapter 2)
- what the perceived merit of this research questionis, with regard to social work knowledge and practice
- feasibility – specifically how this research could be answered by a student or practitioner researcher
Communicating the ideas (20%):
- A reflection which demonstrates your understanding of the feedback provided on AT1, and how and why you have incorporated that into this assignment (10%)
- Attention to the presentation of the paper: ensuring correct Harvard referencing; the use of appropriate academic language; as well as correct spelling, grammar and punctuation (10%).