Please describe your project
The project focuses on using some of the information literacy frames ( eg. scholarship as a conversation process) in designing a course assignment (research paper) on Caribbean Religions. This class assessment involves a writing component, which is a research paper. Students will write a research paper based on a selected theme under Caribbean Religions (Rasta, Vodou, Santeria, Regla de Palo, and Obeah, etc.) to demonstrate its influence/impact or role on Caribbean peoples and cultures either in their homelands and/or in the diaspora, USA.
• In the research paper, students are required to make use of at least five (5) academic sources, not just one or two – thereby taking note of the ongoing conversation and existing disagreements. They seek out and understand, many different perspectives on the issue or topic under discussion.
• Students take an active part in the scholarly conversation by reviewing or critiquing relevant literature–
o See themselves as contributors to scholarship rather than only consumers of it.
o Students understand their point of entrance: what do they already know/have experienced?
o Students understand that they are not only summarizing the literature and existing perspectives on the topic but are adding their own point of view too.
o Students learn to be open to being wrong: in scholarly discourse, participants must suspend judgment on the value of a particular piece of scholarship until the larger context and other points of view are better understood.
• Students recognize that the scholarly conversation will not be completed with their paper and their perspective but will keep going (an ongoing conversation).
• Students recognize that they will only make a modest, limited contribution and not the final masterpiece contribution. Thus, their contributions are also subject to critique or can be the beginning of another dimension of the scholarly conversation on the theme. These constraints reflect their relative knowledge level and the assignment structure.