KEY RESOURCES

Hancock, D. R., & Algozzine, R. (2006). Doing case study research: A practical guide for beginning researchers. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. This step-by-step handbook guides beginning researchers through the stages of planning and implementing case studies. Starting with how to establish a rationale for conducting a systematic case study and identifying literature that informs the research effort. It also describes how to derive meaning from data and how to communicate results. Finally, the authors delineate the ways to verify the results attained. Merriam, S. B. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. The author offers how-to advice for managing all phases of case study research, from translating educational issues into specific research problems and collecting data to organizing the final case report. She provides strategies for analyzing information, suggestions for ensuring the validity of research findings, and more. Miles, M. B. (1979). Qualitative data as an attractive nuisance: the problem of analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24(4), 590-601. The article presents a criticism of qualitative research methodology within social science research. The method's weaknesses are outlined and illustrated through the failed experimentation of the Project on Social Architecture in Education, highlighting the difficulties in objective analysis of collected data. Further suggestions were also made to revise those flaws in the qualitative study. Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research: Perspectives on practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications This book presents a disciplined, qualitative exploration of case study methods by drawing from naturalistic, holistic, ethnographic, phenomenological and biographic research methods. The book covers: the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches; datagathering including document review; coding, sorting and pattern analysis; the roles of the researcher; triangulation; and reporting.

KEY RESOURCES (Cont.)

Yin, R. K. (1981). The case study crisis: some answers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26(1), 58-65. The article responds to criticism about the weakness of case study in qualitative analysis, entitled "Qualitative Data as an Attractive Nuisance," written by Matthew Miles(1979). The purpose of this study is to ensure the role of the case study as a systematic research tool. Based on the findings in the study, people tend to react adversely as they are dealing with individualized data, rather than aggregate data. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: design and methods (4 ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. This book explains why the case study can work as a research method and compare it with other research methods in the social science. The author indicates the weakness in the preparation of case study, including the selection of good research sites and gaining the access to them. Through the explicit steps and careful planning elaborated in the book, the novice researcher can use this book as a quick guide to learn by doing the case study.

Case Study Research

CHALLENGES Identifying the case (broad or narrow in scope) The worthiness of the case Deciding the number of cases Setting boundaries that adequately surround the case

qualitative approach in which the investigator explores a bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed, indepth data collection involving multiple sources of information and reports a case description and case based themes.

Hakan, Jiyoon, Sharon, and Angel

TYPES OF CASE STUDY Intrinsic Focus is on an unusual or unique situation(s) Instrumental To obtain general understanding about a case Collective (Multiple) One issue with multiple cases

FEATURES
Begin with the identification of a specific case. The case can be bounded or described within certain parameters. Its intent may be to illustrate a unique case or to understand one specific issue, problem, or concern. Researcher collects many forms of qualitative data in order to present an in-depth understanding of the case. Researcher reports a description of the case and themes or issues that were uncovered in studying the case. Generally end with general lessons learned from studying the case.

PROCEDURES 1) Determine if a case study approach is appropriate (i.e. is the researcher seeking to provide an indepth understanding of clearly identifiable case or cases?) 2) Identify case or cases 3) Collect data from multiple sources 4) Analyze the data analysis (holistic or embedded analysis) 5) Report the meaning of the case (lesson learned from the case) WRITING STRUCTURE 1) Entry vignette 2) Introduction (problem, questions, case study, data collection, analysis outcomes) 3) Description of the case(s) within the context 4) Development of issues 5) Detail about selected issues 6) Assertions 7) Closing vignette

TYPES OF DESIGNS