Case Study

WHAT IS A CASE STUDY?

• A case study is a specific, holistic, often unique instance that
is frequently designed to illustrate a more general principle;
• The study of an instance in action;
• The study of an evolving situation;
• Case studies portray ‘what it is like’ to be in a particular
situation;
• Case studies often include direct observations (participant
and non-participant) and interviews.
WHAT IS A CASE?

• A person;
• A group;
• An organization;
• An event;
ELEMENTS OF CASE STUDY
• Rich, vivid and holistic description (‘thick description’)
and portrayal of events, contexts and situations
through the eyes of participants (including the
researcher);
• Contexts are temporal, physical, organizational,
institutional, interpersonal;
• Chronological narrative;
• Combination of description, analysis and
interpretation;
• Focus on actors and participants;
• Let the data speak for themselves (don’t over-
interpret).
 TYPES OF CASE STUDY
• Exploratory (pilot);
• Descriptive (e.g. narrative);
• Explanatory.

Stake:
• Intrinsic case studies: (to understand the case in
question);
• Instrumental case studies (examining a particular
case to gain insight into an issue or theory);
• Collective case studies (groups of individual studies
to gain a fuller picture).
 DESIGNS IN CASE STUDY
• Single-case design
• a critical case, an extreme case, a unique case, a representative or
typical case, a revelatory case (an opportunity to research a case
heretofore unresearched.
• Embedded, single-case design
• more than one ‘unit of analysis’ is incorporated into the design, e.g. a
case study of a whole school might also use sub-units of classes,
teachers, students, parents, and each of these might require different
data collection instruments.
• Multiple-case design
• comparative case studies within an overall piece of research, or
replication case studies.
• Embedded multiple-case design
• different sub-units may be involved in each of the different cases, and
a range of instruments used for each sub-unit, and each is kept
separate to each case.
 KEY QUESTIONS IN CASE STUDY
• What exactly is the case(s)?
• How are cases identified and selected?
• What kind of case study is this (what is its
purpose)?
• What is reliable evidence?
• What is objective evidence?
• What is an appropriate selection to include from
the wealth of generated data?
• What is a fair and accurate account?
• Under what circumstances is it fair to take an
exceptional case or a critical event?
• What kind of sampling is most appropriate?
 KEY QUESTIONS IN CASE STUDY
• To what extent is triangulation required and how
will this be addressed?
• What is the nature of the validation process in the
case study?
• How will the balance be struck between
uniqueness and generalization?
• What is the most appropriate form of writing up
and reporting the case study?
• What ethical issues are exposed in undertaking
the case study?
DATA IN CASE STUDIES

• Observations (structured to unstructured);

• Field notes;
• Interviews (structured to unstructured);
• Documents;
• Numbers.
TRIANGULATION
• Time;
• Place;
• Methodologies;
• Instrumentation;
• Researchers;
• Participants;
• Theory (interpretive paradigms/lenses).
ROLE OF RESEARCHER
(Stake, 1995)

TEACHER

ADVOCATE

EVALUATOR

BIOGRAPHER

INTERPRETER
STRENGTHS OF CASE STUDIES
• Can establish cause and effect;
• Rooted in real contexts;
• Regard context as determinant of behaviour;
• The whole is more than the sum of the parts (holism);
• Strong on reality;
• Recognize and accept complexity,uniqueness and
unpredictability;
STRENGTHS OF CASE STUDIES

• Lead to action (link to action research);

• Can focus on critical incidents;
• Written in accessible style and are immediately
intelligible;
• Practicable (can be done by a single researcher);
• Can permit generalizations and application to similar
situations;
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY IN
CASE STUDIES
• Construct validity
• Internal validity
• External validity
• Concurrent validity
• Convergent validity
• Ecological validity
• Reliability
• Avoidance of bias

THE NEED FOR A CHAIN OF EVIDENCE

PLANNING A CASE STUDY
CONSIDER:
• The particular circumstances of the case:
• The possible disruption to individual participants
that participation might entail;
• Negotiating access to people;
• Negotiating ownership of the data;
• Negotiating release of the data.
 PLANNING A CASE STUDY
CONSIDER:
• The conduct of the study including:
• The use of primary and secondary sources;
• The opportunities to check data;
• Triangulation;
• Peer and respondent validation;
• Reflexivity;
• Data collection methods;
• Data analysis and interpretation;
• Theory generation;
• Writing the report
• Consequences of the research (and for whom).
STAGES IN CASE STUDY

• Start with a wide field of focus;

• Progressive focusing;
• Draft interpretation/report (avoid generalizing too early).
DATA TYPES IN CASE STUDY

• Documents
• Archival records
• Interviews
• Direct observation
• Participant observation
• Physical artifacts
• Actual data gathered, recorded and organized
by entry, and the researcher’s ongoing
analysis/report/comments/narrative on the data.
RECORDING OBSERVATIONS
• Record the notes as quickly as possible after
observation.
• Discipline yourself to write notes quickly.
• Dictating rather than writing is acceptable.
• Word-processing field notes is vastly preferable
to handwriting.
• Keep backup copies of field notes.
• The notes ought to be full enough adequately to
summon up for one again, months later, a
reasonably vivid picture of any described event.
 WRITING UP A CASE STUDY
• Executive summary followed by detail.
• A prose account is provided, interspersed with
relevant figures, tables, emergent issues, analysis
and conclusion.
• Examine the same case through two or more lenses
(e.g. explanatory, descriptive, theoretical).
• Follow a simple sequence or chronology, interspersed
with commentaries, interpretations and explanations.
• Have a structure that follows theoretical constructs or
a case that is being made.
• Order by main issues.
• Consider rival explanations.
PROBLEMS WITH CASE STUDIES
• Difficult to organize;
• Limited generalizability;
• Problems of cross-checking;
• Risk of bias, selectivity and subjectivity;