Module 2: Summary & Assignment

After reviewing the lessons on research questions and literature reviews, complete the following two activities. You should not submit these activities to the Gender Institute Coordinator. These activities are for your own learning comprehension. In the course on researching gender and migration, you will have the opportunity to read literature reviews produced by Dr. Phil and her colleagues.

Activity 1:

Review examples of research questions below.  Think about how they meet the criteria of a strong research question as described in the lesson on research questions. 

  • What sources of information do immigrant parents use to improve the health of their children? (Mason et al. 2020, 10)
  • How do African immigrant women view, experience, and respond to major stressors within and outside the family in a specific Canadian context? (Okeke et al. 2019, 583)
  • What stressors do African men face within the family in the post-migration context? What insights could their experiences provide in terms of possible directions for future studies, service provision, and policymaking? (Okeke-Ihejirika and Salami 2018, 94)
  • What are the current needs of survivors of conflict-related sexualized violence and their family members?  What challenges does this group face in accessing current services and supports to meet these needs? (Yohani and Okeke-Ihejirika 2018, 385) 

Activity 2:

Read the literature review from Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika  and Bukola Salami’s (2018) article “Men Become Baby Dolls and Women Become Lions: African Immigrant Men’s Challenges with Transition and Integration” (pages 92-94).  

Assignment:

Developing Your Research Question & Reviewing the Literature

Next, begin work on the following assignment. You will submit this to the Gender Institute Coordinator for their review and feedback.

  • Identify your research interests and the social problem you want to address. Answer the question: “Why is this a social problem? Why does it need to be addressed?”
  • Begin reviewing (or surveying) the literature in the field and compile an annotated bibliography
  • Identify any gaps in the literature. Why should these gaps be addressed?
  • Now that you have surveyed the literature, try to frame your research problem in the form of a question or questions.