Case studies

Introductory notes for the week.

• Case study as a bounded system.  Brown and Dowling argue that 'this is unrealistic .....researchers act selectively and productively' ... the term case can only be usefully applied to the description of one's sampling procedure.'  (KRO this would fit with how it is sometimes used in education eg family use of TV slid back to issues of gendered viewing)
  
• Widespread use of the case study approach fairly recent in education , compared to other disciplines.  Often regarded with suspicion at best poorly understood.
  
• Some contention amongst researchers about the definition of the case study as a consistent and coherent form of research.  
  
• Case study as an approach or strategy rather than a method.
  
• Some researchers talk of using quant or qual methods within  case studies
  

What is a case study?

Bassey M

Case Study Research in Educational Settings

Resources

The case study approach - as educationalists have conceptualised it.

Apparently a seminal book Cohen, L., and Manion, L. (1989) Research Methods in Education. 3rd edition ( London, Routledge) ( first published in 1980 it  has now been republished many times)

Yin, R.K. (1994)  Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 2nd edition   ( London, Sage Publications)  also Applications of Case Study Research.

The case study method

Adelman et al. (1980)

1. strong in reality but difficult to organise
   
2. peculiar strength lies in their attention to the subtlety and complexity of the case in its own right
   
3. case studies recognise the complexity and 'embeddedness' of social truths.
   
4. case studies may form an archive of descriptive material sufficiently rich to admit subsequent reinterpretation.

Sturman, 1994, p61

'a distinguishing feature of case study is the belief that human systems develop a characteristic wholeness or integrity and are simply not a loose collection of traits........... and therefore requires in depth investigation of the parts and patterns that emerge.

Yin, 1994, p13

The case study

1. 'copes with the technically distinctive situation in which there will be more variables of interest than data points'
   
2. 'relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion'
   
3. 'benefits from the prior development of theoretical proposaitions to guide data collection and analysis
   

Stake, 19888 'a case study is a bounded system.'

Adelman et al (1980: 59-60)

difficult to organise

attention given to the subtlety and complexity of the case in its own right ( KRO so why should methods be embedded in it)

can be considered as products and archived for subsequent interpretation

Punch (2005) unique or important enough to deserve study in its own right

Types of case study

Stenhouse 1985 identified 'four broad styles of case study'

ethnographic, evaluative, educational ( systematic documentation of evidence) and action research

Yin , 1993,5

Yin thought in terms of 3 categories, 

exploratory ' aimed at defining the questions and hypotheses of subsequent ( not necessarily case) study'

descriptive  'presents a complete description of a phenomenon within its context'

explanatory ' presents data bearing on cause-effect relationships - explaining which causes produce what effects'

Stake, 1995, p3

intrinsic cs ' research into a particular situation for its own sake and irrespective of outside concerns'

instrumental cs ' research into one or more particular situations in order to try and understand outside concern'

Things to remember as a researcher

Kemmis 1980, 119-120

' research process is still active and interventive' ' in naturalistic research processes are especially visible decisions about how they are realised in a study will often affect life in the situation being studied'  

'social science has the unique problem of treating others as objects of study; the unique problem in case study is to justify to others why the researcher can be a knowledgeable observer-participant who tels what s/he sees'

'How can you generalise when n=1?' ( Cohen and Manion, 1980) 

Yin, 1994, p31 ' a peviously developed theory is used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the case study.  If two or more cases are shown to support the same theory , replication may be claimed'  ( KRO  replication and generalisation seems to tie people up in knots , at times  see Simon comments later)

Stenhouse, 1980, p4 distinguished between predictive and retrospective generalisation

'predictive generalisation is that which arises from the study of samples and is the form in which data are accumulated in the sciences...... retrospective generalisation is that which can arise from the analysis of case studies and is the form in which data is accumulated in history'

'while predictive generalisations claim to supersede the need for individual judgement, retrospective generalisations seek to strengthen individual judgement where it cannot be superseded' 

Simons, 1996, 225, 237-238  The paradox of case study, Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(2)  225-240.

'one of the advantages cited for the cs is its uniqueness, its capacity for understanding complexity in particular contexts.  A corresponding disadvantage often cited is the difficulty of generalising from a single case.  Such an observation assumes a polarity and stems from a particular view of research.  Looked at differently, from within a holistic perspective and direct perception, there is no disjunction.  What we have is a paradox, which if acknowledge, and explored in depth, yields both unique and universal understanding'

'The tension between the study of the unique and the need to generalise is necessary to reveal both the unique and the universal and the unity of that understanding.  To live with ambiguity, to challenge certainty, to creatively encounter, is to eventually  see anew'