Educational Research: Case Study Methodology

ADES 1004

Researching Literacies and Learning

case study

…examines the characteristics of a particular entity, phenomenon, or person

Select a unit of analysis - singularity

Is useful for describing or answering questions about particular, localized occurrences or contexts

AND / OR

the perspectives of a participant group toward events, beliefs, or practices

Illuminates the “invisibility of everyday life”

…by making the familiar strange, more examined, and better understood

The critical case – You already have a theory (hypothesis) and the case with prove or disprove it

The extreme case – the elements you are looking for a pronounced and highlight the concept / hypothesis

The exemplifying case – the elements are broadly showing a theory

The longitudinal case – data over time sheds light on development of the concept

Types of Cases

What is your Unit of Analysis?

“ A single ..................”

Family

Location

Community

Person

Organisation

What is shown by the case…?

Case Study – Your first questions

BehaviourPerceptionAttitudesBeliefs

KnowledgeProcessesLanguage

What are you doing – the researcher?

Descriptive phase: Its construction relies heavily on “thick” verbal descriptions of a particular social context being studied

Analysis phase: Its meaning relies on your interpretations and thematic logic

…employ expressive language and voicevoice in descriptions and explanations

…judged in terms of believability, trustworthiness, coherence, and the logic underlying researcher’s interpretations

Participant Observation Cases

• Issues in primary qualitative research...

b. contacting potential research participants

a. gaining entry

c. being prepared

d.d. capturing all data in the momentcapturing all data in the moment

a. gaining entry...

may require considerable negotiation with a gatekeeper – a friend or acquaintance

access is dependent upon the researcher’s personal and professional characteristics and how others perceive the researcher

trust is earned, not given

b. contacting participants...

• Have the consent form with synopsis ready

build trust and ensure confidentiality and anonymity

Do what you say you will - reliability

c. be prepared

Preparation includes:

The Rationale / Validity Table (see class notes)

Consent formsObservation sheetThank You Letter

Observer Effect

…the impact of the observer’s participation on the setting or the participants being studied

The threats to validity in qualitative studies...

the researcher records descriptive as well as reflective notes about what one has seen, heard, experienced, and thought about a during an observation session

Teacher_Observation_Checklist

regarding field notesfield notes…

…put aside assumptions, experience context first

…see phenomena through participants’ perspective

…write up notes immediately following an observation

Text Based Cases

Selecting the case the goal is to get the deepest

possible understanding of the setting being studied

Photos, descriptions, memos, field notes, videos, narratives from others

Collecting data... KEEP IT ALL TOGETHER

observations – field notes about other people’s primary data (video or document)

official documents – govt.

photographs, recordings, emails

media reports – different sources

informal conversations - memos

Themes As you collect data, categorise it around your objectives,

themes, sub-categories

Have some decided already But leave other so they can emerge

The threats to validity in qualitative studies...

observer biasobserver bias…

…invalid information resulting from the perspective the researcher brings to the study and imposes upon it

Question: what are your biases regarding your topic?

…detail is critical: topic theme on every note; leave wide margins for writing impressions; use only one side of a page of paper; draw diagram of site (if necessary)

…list key words first, then outline one’s observations

Gathering and Theme-ing data

…keep the descriptive (context) and reflective (analysis) sections separate in your note book

…use memos to record hunches, questions, and insights after each observation – group these later

Analyzing data…

data pieces

data categories

data patterns

classifying the data, including categorization, coding, and grouping into thematic units

interpreting and synthesizing the organized data into general conclusions or understandings

• Checking for Validity

a. credibility credibility or or plausibilityplausibility

b. transferabilitytransferability

c. including a methods sectionincluding a methods section

credibility credibility or or plausibilityplausibility…to demonstrate that the study was

conducted in such a manner as to ensure that the subject was accurately identified and described

transferabilitytransferability…to demonstrate that the results of

the study are generalizable to others in the original research context or to contexts beyond the original study

including a methods sectionincluding a methods section…to provide an in-depth description

of the processes and methods used in the study

• Strategies for analyzing qualitative data...

a. constant comparison methodconstant comparison method

b. negative case and discrepant data negative case and discrepant data methodsmethods

c. analytic inductionanalytic induction

constant comparison methodconstant comparison method…compares new evidence to prior

evidence to identify similarities and differences between observations

negative case and discrepant data negative case and discrepant data methodsmethods

…the search for contradictory, variant, or disconfirming data within the body of data collected that provides an alternative perspective on an emerging category or pattern

analytic inductionanalytic induction…a process concerned with

developing and testing a theory in order to generalize a study’s findings

5. Writing the research report...

Describe the setting where the data were collected

Identify characters of focus

describe the social action in which the characters are engaged

offer an interpretation of what the social action means to the characters