Relating learnings to others' research. You might be able to relate what you learn in your research to others' research. Were your learnings the same? Different? Linking learnings helps build knowledge about the topic. You might make new connections to other research that opens up new ways of looking at your focus.
As well, a single research in practice study is usually too small to make generalizations. However, as numbers of studies are done on a topic, it may be possible to find patterns in the learnings. In a national project, eleven researchers explored ways to move the research about addressing impacts of violence on learning into practice. As well as publishing the reports from each exploration, project members identified and wrote about themes that were common across the reports (Nonesuch, 2008b).
Support for a project proposal. You might find that the topic hasn't been researched. If you're applying for funding for your research, lack of other research may support your proposal. If there is similar research, you could show how your project relates to and builds on that work.
Reflection and professional development. Some people find that reading others' research prompts reflection about practice. So even if you don't use all that you find, doing a literature review can be useful for your practice.
Later in the chapter, you will find sources of published literature and suggestions for reading research. At this point, we'll step off the path and look at some challenges and alternatives to literature reviews.
Research in practice has broadened the thinking about literature reviews. Practitioners have identified practical challenges of doing literature reviews and have raised challenges to the actual concept of literature reviews.
As we've discussed before, much of what we know as practitioners is learned through experience and shared informally or through workshops and conferences. This knowledge is not necessarily written down; if it is, it is not necessarily published or easily accessed. Although more and more research documents are published on the Internet, researchers in practice may not have the same access to internet resources as people located in universities. Furthermore, researchers in practice usually have limited time and must make choices about how to spend it. Learning styles instance, my style prompts me to keep searching and reading until the time runs out; others might stop the search sooner.)