Case Studies and Review Week 4 NJ Kang

5) Studying Cases Case study is a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence. The case is studied in its own right, not as a sample from a population.

6) Evaluation and Change Evaluation brings to the fore a very different agenda of issues from those usually associated with ‘pure’ research. The need to understand the phenomenon may still be there, but issues to do with change (How can it be implemented? What are the barriers to implementation and how might they be overcome?)

Self-evaluation? At one extreme, some would doubt the feasibility of the insider carrying out any worthwhile, credible or objective enquiry into a situation in which she or he is centrally involved. At the other extreme, those associated with movements such as the professional –as-scientist or the teacher-as-researcher maintain essentially that outsider research is ineffective research and methodology.

Designing Case Studies A strategy for doing research which involves an 1) empirical investigation of 2) a particular contemporary phenomenon within its 3) real life context using 4) multiple sources of evidence. Case Single or multi person cases Not necessarily studies of individuals.

Case studies Can be done on a group, on an institution, on a neighbourhood, on an innovation, on a decision, on a service, on a programme and on many other things. Individual case study, Set of individual case studies Community studies. Social group studies, studies of organizations and institutions Studies of events, roles and relationships. Read the introduction of articles and select which study?

Ethnographic Studies 1) a Written description 2)the implicit rules and traditions of a 3) group. 4)involvement with, 5)a rich, or thick description 6)interprets 7)their own perspective.

Ethnographic Studies Is differentiated by some from the case study approach. This approach seeks to provide a 1)Written description of 2)the implicit rules and traditions of a 3) group. Through 4)involvement with the group, tries to work out these rules The intention is to provide 5)a rich, or thick description which 6)interprets the experiences of people in the group from 7)their own perspective.

Ethnographic studies need The questions that the study is asking, The data that are collected, and The conclusions drawn.

Exploratory and confirmatory Exploratory: Pre-structured or emergent,  tight pre-structuring is just not possible  trying to get some feeling as to what is going on in a novel situation. Confirmatory: a detailed pre-structured case study. need to have explanation of some phenomenon, Case study don’t need limit itself to confirmation of suggested relationships.

Designing a case study A conceptual framework; A set of research questions; A sampling strategy; To decide on methods and instruments for data collection.

Developing a conceptual framework Aspects, dimensions, factors, variables of a case study and their presumed relationships.

Why do you need CF? It forces you to be explicit about what you think you are doing. To be selective on which are the important features; which relationships are likely to be of importance or meaning; and hence, what data you are going to collect and analyse.

Developing a set of Research questions in a case study Ask questions about a case using theories or your own experiences or both. List questions and select answerable ones Link between questions and research methods that can answer to your RQs. Think of your data analysis strategy.

Sampling Settings = where Actors = who, why chose this person, what are the implication of other person? Events = settings, processes, Processes = in what situation

Data collection in case study 1. Observation Participant observation : Systematic observation Simple observation 2. Interview Open-ended interview Focused interview Structured interview 3. Use of documents and records

A case study Is not a survey, where reliability relies crucially on the characteristics of the data collection instruments. The case study relies on the trustworthiness of the human instrument rather than on the data collection techniques per se.

Types of Case Study Holistic Case Studies: A case study of an individual, an institution Multiple Case Studies.

Holistic Case Studies: A case study of an individual, an institution which remained global rather than seeking to look at and analyse the different functioning of separate sub-units within the institution.

The critical Case : this occurs when your theoretical understanding is such that there is a clear, unambiguous and nontrivial set of circumstances where predicted outcomes will be found. put an investigation of a certain phenomenon under a certain theoretical hypothesis. Use of experiment is to clarify the theory and hypothesis not to make change on something. E.g. verification of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Application in TESOL?

The extreme case It investigate how one sample of person or situation works in a certain situation. (a person’s recovery of a trauma) It include the ‘if it can work here it will work anywhere’ scenario, a new approach is tried under ideal circumstances, perhaps to obtain understanding of how it works before its wider implementation

Multiple case studies Gathering a sample of cases Doing multiple experiments Replication of an initial experiment Seek to complement the first study by focusing on an area not originally covered. Build upon the first experiment, Like multiple surveys for that matter; Or even for multiple studies involving a range of different research strategies.