HECOL 571: Issues and Trends in Textiles and Clothing Fall 2016 Syllabus
Instructor Rachel McQueen
Associate Professor, Textile Science Office: 335 Human Ecology Building (HEB) Telephone: 780-492-2045
Email Address: [email protected] Office Hours: By appointment
Classes Friday 9.00 – 10.30 am
Human Ecology Building (HEB) 302B and 301 Credits 3 credits
Calendar description
Content and philosophy of the study of textiles and clothing from a human ecological perspective.
Course objectives:
As a student, you will be able to:
• Develop an awareness and understanding of current issues and trends in research and scholarship in the field of textiles and material culture.
• Become familiar with the scope of textiles, material culture and design literature relevant to your interests and identify problems for further investigation.
• Develop familiarity with a broad range of textiles and material culture literature and resources.
• Be able to identify current research trends within textiles and material culture and critically review research papers
• Review and integrate appropriate literature into a literature review on a selected topic.
• Prepare and lead a seminar on your topic of research.
• Learn to use RefWorks or equivalent to build a database of literature, cite as you write and print a bibliography.
Recommended text and other materials:
A recommended book for this course is:
American Psychological Association. 2009. Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
Useful resources available in the library:
Hart, C. (1998). Doing a literature review: Releasing the social science research imagination.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rudestam, K. E., & Newton, R. R. (2015). Surviving Your Dissertation. 4th edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
eClass:
eClass will be used throughout the term to post lecture slides, seminar reading lists and class discussion.
Writing support available through the university:
Writing services
The Centre for Writers offers free one-on-one writing coaching for students and university staff.
You can make an appointment with a tutor online: http://www.c4w.arts.ualberta.ca/
University Student Success Centre offers workshops or individual study assistance which may help in assignment writing. http://www.studentsuccess.ualberta.ca/
Library
If you would like to arrange a library instruction you can contact Angie Mandeville who is the Liaison Librarian for Human Ecology at: [email protected]
Human Ecology databases can be found at this following library link:
http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/clothing-textiles-material-culture Code of student behaviour:
All students at the University of Alberta are subject to the Code of Student Behaviour (available online:
http://www.governance.ualberta.ca/en/CodesofConductandResidenceCommunityStandards/Co deofStudentBehaviour.aspx). Please familiarize yourself with it and ensure you do not
participate in any inappropriate behaviour defined by the Code. The following statements are particularly important:
30.3.2(1) Plagiarism. No Student shall submit the words, ideas, images or data of another person as the student’s own in any academic writing, essay, thesis, project, assignment, presentation or poster in a course or program of study.
30.3.2 (2)a Cheating. No Student shall, in the course of an examination or other similar activity, obtain or attempt to obtain information from another Student or other unauthorized source, give or attempt to give information to another Student, or use, attempt to use, or possess for the purposes of use, any unauthorized material.
30.3.2(2)c Cheating. No Student shall represent another’s substantial editorial or compositional assistance on an assignment as the student’s own work.
Policy regarding late assignments and/or missed presentation:
Assignments are to be handed in on (or before) the date they are due. EXTENSIONS WILL NOT BE GRANTED except in the case of illness or other extreme circumstances. Without an extension being granted, students who submit assignments after 5.00 pm (or specified time if later) on the due date will be penalized 10% for each day (24 hours) that the assignment is late.
Student Accessibility Services:
Students who require specialized support in this course due to disability affecting mobility, vision, hearing, learning, or mental or physical health are advised to inform the instructor and to discuss their needs with Student Accessibility Services, 2-800 Students’ Union Building, 780- 492-3381, [email protected] (email); www.uab.ca/accessibility.
Assignments and grading:
Assignment Due date Percent
1a. Class participation On-going 10%
1b. Student-lead seminar Oct 14 –
Nov 25
20%
2. Evaluation of research articles: - Part 1 - Part 2
Sep 30 Oct 14
20%
3. Detailed outline for literature review Nov 4 10%
4. Literature review Dec 9 40%
100%
All assignments should be typed and in a proper format, that is, double-spaced and size 10 or 12 font. Cite all references in APA format (6th edition). Spelling and grammar are important.
There is a 10% penalty per day including weekend days for late assignments. All assignments are described below.
Marking and grading:
A raw score and a percentage weight will be assigned for each of the course requirements. At the end of the term, the percentage weight for each requirement will be totalled (out of 100).
Final grade determination will be based on a combination of your absolute achievement (total percentage weight out of 100) and your performance relative to the entire class. The following descriptions will be used to guide the determination of final grades:
Excellent:
The student has demonstrated
excellent understanding of
course content.
A+ Outstanding: The student has demonstrated an extraordinary grasp of the course content and performance reflects creativity and innovation, in addition to a high level of analytical ability.
A Excellent: The student has demonstrated superior understanding of the course content and a high level of analytical ability.
A- The student has demonstrated superior understanding of the course content, but has not shown the same level of analytical ability as students receiving an A.
Good:
The student has demonstrated a sound
understanding of course content.
B+ The student has demonstrated a sound understanding of course content in terms of scope, depth, and breadth, with superior understanding being evident in some topics.
B The student has demonstrated a uniformly sound understanding of course material.
Satisfactory:
The student has demonstrated adequate awareness
of course content.
B- The student has demonstrated adequate awareness of course content with sound understanding of some topics.
C+ The student has demonstrated adequate awareness of central dimensions of course content with superficial understanding of some topics.
Unsatisfactory C or lower
The student has demonstrated a limited understanding of the course content. Performance is characterized by a lack of knowledge of the majority of the central
dimensions of the course content.
Description of assignments:
1a Class participation (weight 10%):
It is expected that you will attend all classes and come prepared to discuss the relevant course content and be fully engaged in class discussion. Quality and not necessarily quantity will be a major determining factor in the overall grading of this segment. The reading list and guiding questions will be posted on eClass no less than one week before the seminar.
1b. Student-lead seminar (weight 20%)
You will be assigned one seminar to lead and facilitate class discussion during the term. This means that you will be responsible for selecting the topic, sourcing appropriate articles,
introducing the topic and facilitating the discussion for the seminar. This is your opportunity to present scholarly articles that are current in your immediate field of research.
For the seminar you will need to find two articles on a topic of your choice. One article will be a review article that reviews research in your topic. The second article will be a research article that was cited in the review article or has cited that particular review.
You will be required to prepare the reading list and set some guiding questions. Select some guiding questions for eClass discussion and some that will be for discussion in class during the seminar. Send these to the instructor to post on eClass two weeks in advance of your seminar.
The student-lead seminars are scheduled to begin the 14 October. Therefore, you will have sufficient time to locate suitable articles and prepare a presentation at the beginning of the class. You will need to send the articles and discussion questions to the instructor three weeks in advance of your seminar so there is sufficient time for the instructor to review them and make recommendations if necessary. Your level of preparation in locating and finding articles and setting discussion questions will comprise a portion of the overall grading. Please, keep in mind the diversity of students in the class and select articles which can be understood by all. An article which is made up mostly of mathematical formulas or has too much jargon is not likely to be suitable.
Guides for preparing for this seminar and class discussion guiding questions will be posted on eClass.
In the grading for this assignment the following will be taken into account:
• preparation and organisation (has shown good level of organisation and met deadlines)
• article selection (guidelines met for article selection, content is appropriate for topic and articles complement each another)
• facilitation of discussion and leadership (has facilitated discussion effectively and shown good leadership and management skills in directly class discussion)
• presentation style and delivery (PowerPoint presentation slides and delivery style is both organised and professional, reading list is neat and professional)
2. Critical evaluation of research articles (Part 1 due 30 September; Part 2 due 14 October, 20%):
The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience at critically evaluating and comparing published research articles. This assignment will provide you with experience in assessing other research and evaluating what makes an article effective. It also will give you the
experience at comparing research articles on similar topics which is necessary in an effective review of literature.
This assignment will be divided into two parts:
Part 1:
1. Select a research article of your own choice to review (Article 1). It will be helpful to select a research article that relates to your own topic of research. Make sure you review an original research article, not a review article.
2. Provide a brief summary of the research article. This may include summarising the article sequentially, i.e., what were the purpose/objectives, methods, findings and conclusions? Or this may involve addressing the issues that were most pertinent, progressing to the less important points.
3. Discuss whether the authors met their objectives. Were the purpose, methods, results and conclusions were clear and appropriate? Was there relevant and important information that was not included in this paper which the authors failed to address in their research? Did they include appropriate controls, did they adequately describe their sample population? Was the statistical analysis clear and appropriate?
4. Attach a copy of the research article as an appendix to the assignment.
The following guide “Critical Reviews of Journal Articles” on the UofM library website may be helpful for this assignment:
http://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/dafoe/media/reviews_of_journal_articles.pdf
Part 2:
1. Find two other research articles (again original research articles, not review articles) which relate to the research article you reviewed in Part 1.
• One article (Article 2) should relate to the first article in content of subject matter o (e.g., Article 1 may be about moisture wicking in synthetic knit fabrics,
Article 2 is therefore also related to moisture absorption of synthetic knit fabrics although they may also focusing on blends of natural and synthetic fibres).
• The other research article (Article 3) should relate to the first article in terms of methodological approach
o (e.g., Article 1 compared the level of comfort during exercise of garments made with from synthetic knit fabrics a human physiological wear trial, and Article 3 compared three types of chemical protective suits through a physiological wear trial).
2. Briefly describe how each of the two research articles (Article 2 and 3) relate to the first article (Article 1).
3. Critically compare each article with the original article:
• Do this by drawing on then expanding upon the reason that the articles are similar.
• Write this in a paragraph format as if it was a paragraph in your final review of literature and give it an appropriate subheading.
• In the first sentence or two you should state the overall point of the paragraph and cite both articles.
o First you will need to state what the point of the paragraph is which both articles support. (e.g., Knit fabrics made from synthetic filament yarns have been found to move moisture more effectively by capillary action than fabrics made from staple yarns (cite Article 1, date; Article 2, date)).
• Then expand on each article to explain how they support the particular point you are trying to make from a critical perspective.
o You may find that the articles are in agreement in their findings or they are in disagreement in their findings. If they are in disagreement can you see why? Is this because they carried out their measurements under different conditions? If they were both in agreement do you see that they have not addressed something important in the way they conducted their experiment?
4. Attach the relevant pages you have drawn upon in your article comparison.
5. Include a reference list of the three articles and any other references you may have cited in your critical evaluation.
Note: The articles you choose to evaluate for this assignment can be the same articles that you use for your seminar.
An example of a student’s review of literature (with instructor’s comments):
http://faculty.mwsu.edu/psychology/Laura.Spiller/Experimental/sample_apa_style_litreview.pdf
3. Outline for review of literature (Due 4 November, 10%)
The purpose of this assignment is get you started on your literature review and make you aware of the importance of a detailed and comprehensive outline prior to writing your literature review.
It is expected that you will have at least 15 references. Some of these you will have already searched for in a previous assignment. This assignment will be very helpful for the final literature review assignment.
Requirements for this assignment:
1. Include a title and a statement of your research question.
2. The outline can be written in point-form if you wish, make good use of headings and subheadings to describe the sections that will be in your literature review.
3. The sections in the literature review should flow logically.
4. Beneath each heading or subheading, you should include a list of citations that you would expect to reference. Include a brief note about the relevance of the citation to that section of your literature review.
4. Literature Review (Due 9 December, 40%)
The literature review is the major assignment for this course and something you have been working towards through the entire term.
For this assignment you are expected to submit a comprehensive review of the scientific literature in a well defined area of your choice. You can submit your literature review as either a) a chapter in your thesis, or b) review article for an appropriate academic journal. Check what is expected as the required format for your choice. Copies of theses in the reference room (HEB 302B) will act as helpful guides for the thesis chapter, and review articles in the relevant academic journals will be helpful in structuring the review article in option b.
The purpose of the literature review is to:
• Acquaint yourself with the necessary background on your topic
• Let the readers know what has already been written on the topic
• Demonstrate that the study you intend to undertake has not already been done
• Show how your proposed study fits into the general literature in the field, that is, what gap it will fill in the relevant body of knowledge
Therefore, this assignment is not meant to be just a compilation of findings from published studies but it should be a coherent argument that leads to the description of your proposed research or new ideas. The literature review should demonstrate your ability to critically analyse and synthesise related facts into a comprehensive review.
The final paper should be between 5000 – 6000 words.
The following websites may be helpful guides on getting started on your literature review:
http://info.emeraldinsight.com/research/guides/literature2.htm
Class schedule and readings:
Week 1 2 September Content:
• Course introduction Week 2 9 September Content:
• The literature review
• Developing a research statement/question
• Critical evaluation of research articles Readings:
• Bem, D. J. (1995). Writing a review article for Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 118(2), 172-177.
• Boote, D. N., & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3-15.
• Cronin, P., Ryan, F., & Coughlan, M. (2008). Undertaking a literature review: a step-by-step approach. British Journal of Nursing, 17(1), 38-43.
• Rudestam, K. E., & Newton, R. R. (1992). Review of the literature and statement of the problem. In Surviving Your Dissertation (pp. 45-57). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Week 3 16 September Content:
• Odour and bacteria in clothing Readings:
• McQueen, R. H. (2006). Chapters 1 & 2. In Axillary Odour in Apparel Fabrics (pp.
1-37). (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
• Neely, A. N., & Maley, M. P. (2000). Survival of enterococci and staphylococci on hospital fabrics and plastics. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 38(2), 724–726.
Rudestam, K. E., & Newton, R. R. (1992). Review of the literature and statement of the problem. In Surviving Your Dissertation (pp. 45-57). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Week 4 23 September Content:
• Clothing for exercising in cold environments Readings:
• Morrissey, M. P., & Rossi, R. M. (2013). Clothing systems for outdoor activities.
Textile Progress, 45(2-3), 145–181.
• Prahsarn, C. (2005). Moisture vapor transport behavior of polyester knit fabrics.
Textile Research Journal, 75(4), 346–351.
Week 5 30 September Content:
• Searching the library catalogues and databases – Angie Mandeville
Week 7 14 October Content:
• Student directed seminar 1 Week 8 21 October
Content:
• Student directed seminar 2 Week 9 28 October
Content:
• Student directed seminar 3 Week 10 4 October
Content:
• Student directed seminar 4
Week 11 11 November Reading Week – no seminar Week 12 18 November Content:
• Student directed seminar 5
Week 13 25 November Content:
• Student directed seminar 6
Week 14 2 December Content:
• Disposal of Clothing Readings:
• Laitala, K. (2014). Consumers’ clothing disposal behaviour - a synthesis of research results. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 38(5), 444–457.
doi:10.1111/ijcs.12088
• Shim, S. (1995). Environmentalism and consumers’ clothing disposal patterns: An exploratory study. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 13(1), 38–48.
doi:10.1177/0887302X9501300105
Note: The above course schedule may be altered at the discretion of the instructor. Any changes will be announced in advance for your convenience.