AN INTERPRETIVE ARGUMENT FOR MULTIPLE METHODS

An interpretive argument for multiple methods. What case study can mean to people. Recasting case study as ideographic in the context of a complex realist paradigm. The different role of multiple methods in this paradigm. An example discovery.

Introduction to the study – an investigation into embodied practices in coaching Embodied practices expressed through physicality Practices informed by a conceptual linkage between mind and body Bodily practices which emerge in the coaching session The body is ‘under the radar’ in coaching literature and much practice.

Methodology Grounded theory Ethnography Life history Phenomenology

Insight!! Case studies are OK.

Methodology Grounded theory Ethnography Life history Phenomenology

The case study as instance "The case study inquiry copes with the technically distinctive situation in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one result relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion, and as another result, benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis."  Yin (1994, p13)

The case study as system “For realists, the above views of the role of case studies in social empirical research are limited because they are based on the assumptions that (a) the ultimate objects of knowledge are atomistic events, which constitute facts apprehended by sense-experience, and (b) event conjunctions are the raw materials for theory building.” Tsoukas (1989, p556)

The case study as system “By contrast, within the realist paradigm, explanatory idiographic studies are epistemologically valid because they are concerned with the clarification of structures and their associated generative mechanisms, which have been contingently capable of producing the observed phenomena.” Tsoukas (1989, p556)

The case study as system “… cases are complex systems – a position that transcends the holistic/analytic dichotomy by recognising that in complex systems (far from equilibric systems), trajectories and transformations depend on all of the whole, the parts, the interactions among parts and whole, and the interactions of any system with other complex systems among which it is nested and with which it intersects.” (Byrne, 2009, p. 2)

The case study as situation Thomas, G., 2010. Doing case study: Abduction not induction, phronesis not theory. Qualitative inquiry, 16(7), pp.575-582.

The case study as situation “we must look at our subject from many and varied angles, to develop what the great historian-philosopher Michel Foucault called ‘a polyhedron of intelligibility’” (Thomas, 2015, p. 4).  

An example from practice (of ....)

Three lenses Developmental functions Narratives Approaches to change identifiable in associated literatures. Narratives The unfolding agendas addressed as the topic of coaching. Communicative functions The emergent themes derived from the conscious and unconscious behaviours in the act of communication.

Analysis What narratives are being developed Developmental functions (template) Communicative functions (emergent)

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

A case of a ‘simple’ observation – holding the stage

Looking through multiple lenses - complex hypotheses The use of physicality reflects the speaker’s need for self-expression The relative cognitive complexity of the material (is it hard to access or to express) The emotional charge (does the speaker have an emotional investment in the material) The political charge (does the speaker have an investment in persuading the other in order to achieve goals)

AN INTERPRETIVE ARGUMENT FOR MULTIPLE METHODS Byrne, D. (2009) ‘Case-Based Methods: why we need them; what they are; how to do them.’, in Byrne, D. and Ragin, C. C. (eds) The SAGE handbook of case-based methods. London: Sage Publications Ltd, pp. 1–10. Eisenhardt, K & Graebner, M (2007) 'Theory Building from Cases: Opportunities and Challenges', AMJ, 50:1, 25-32 Harvey, D. (2009) ‘Complexity and Case’, in Byrne, D. and Ragin, C. C. (eds) The SAGE handbook of case-based methods. London: Sage Publications Ltd, pp. 15–38. Thomas, G., 2010. Doing case study: Abduction not induction, phronesis not theory. Qualitative inquiry, 16(7), pp.575-582. Thomas, G. (2011) ‘The case: generalisation, theory and phronesis in case study’, Oxford Review of Education, 37(1), pp. 21–35.

AN INTERPRETIVE ARGUMENT FOR MULTIPLE METHODS Thomas, G. (2015) How to do your case study. London: Sage. Tsoukas, H. (1989). The Validity of Idiographic Research Explanations. The Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 551-561. Verschuren, Piet(2003) 'Case study as a research strategy: some ambiguities and opportunities', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 6: 2, 121 — 139 Yin, R. K. (1994) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. 2nd edn. London: Sage Publications Ltd.