CASE STUDY
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION & KEITH MORRISON
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
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What is a case study?
Generalization in case study
Reliability and validity in case studies
What makes a good case study researcher?
Examples of kinds of case study
Why participant observation?
Planning a case study
Data in case studies
Recording observations
Writing up a case study
WHAT IS A CASE STUDY?
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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?
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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 overinterpret).
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
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Observations (structured to unstructured);
Field notes;
Interviews (structured to unstructured);
Documents;
Numbers.
TRIANGULATION
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Time;
Place;
Methodologies;
Instrumentation;
Researchers;
Participants;
Theory (interpretive paradigms/lenses).
ROLE OF RESEARCHER
(Stake, 1995)
TEACHER
ADVOCATE
EVALUATOR
BIOGRAPHER
INTERPRETER
STRENGTHS OF CASE STUDIES
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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;
GENERALIZATION IN CASE STUDY
• From the single instance to the class of
instances;
• From features of the single case to classes
with the same features;
• From the single features of part of the case to
the whole of the case;
• From a single case to a theoretical extension
or theoretical generalization.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY IN
CASE STUDIES
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Construct validity
Internal validity
External validity
Concurrent validity
Convergent validity
Ecological validity
Reliability
Avoidance of bias
THE NEED FOR A CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
A GOOD CASE STUDY
RESEARCHER MUST BE . . .
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An effective questioner, listener and prober
An effective observer
Able to make informed inferences
Adaptable to changing and emerging
situations
Versed in research methods
Able to collate and synthesize data
Able to maintain confidences and to act with
discretion and confidentiality
Versed in relevant subject knowledge
WHY PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION?
• Observation studies are superior to
experiments and surveys when data are
being collected on non-verbal behaviour.
• Investigators can discern ongoing behaviour
as it occurs and are able to make appropriate
notes about its salient features.
• Researchers can develop more intimate and
informal relationships with those they are
observing, and in natural environments.
• Case study observations are less reactive
than other types of data-gathering methods.
• Direct observation is faithful to the real-life, in
situ and holistic nature of a case study.
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).
CONTINUA OF DATA IN CASE STUDIES
QUALITATIVE
QUANTITATIVE
NATURAL
ARTIFICIAL
UNSTRUCTURED
STRUCTURED
NARRATIVE
NUMERIC
JOURNALISTIC
STATISTICAL
DATA TYPES IN CASE STUDY
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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
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Difficult to organize;
Limited generalizability;
Problems of cross-checking;
Risk of bias, selectivity and subjectivity;
AN EXAMPLE OF A CASE STUDY:
LEARNING TO LABOUR
Willis, P. (1977)
Purpose: to find out how working class kids
get working class jobs and others let them
Considerations:
• the need to link macro and micro sociology;
• The need to analyze schooling in terms of
macro-constraints and human agency
• The need to see schools as sites of contestation,
resistance and struggle in both a micro and
macro sense.
PROCEDURE
(a) Ethnographic study of a group of males ini their
final year of school and then in their first year
beyond school, working in factories and other
short-term, manual employment
(b) Study of their behaviour in school and how it
feeds into their choice of post-school
occupations
ELEMENTS OF LADS’ CULTURE
• Opposition to authority and rejection of
conformity: clothing; smoking and lying;
drinking;
• Celebration of the informal group;
• Excitement is out of school;
• Rejection of the literary tradition;
• Sexism;
• Racism.
SHOP-FLOOR CULTURE
• Masculine chauvinism – sexism;
• Attempt to gain informal control of the work
process;
• Rejection of the conformists in the factory;
• Rejection of ‘theory’ and certification;
• Rejection of the coercion which underlines the
teaching paradigm;
• Shirking work/absenteeism/taking time off;
• No break on the taboo of informing;
• Speaking up for yourself;
• Present oriented;
• Rejection of mental labour and celebration of
manual labour.
MAIN FINDINGS
• The behaviours and values which the lads sought
and practised in school lead them into choosing
deliberately and positively those post-school
occupations that reinforce and let them practise
these behaviours and values;
• There is a continuity between the lads’ life styles at
school and their life styles out of school and postschool;
• The need for immediate cash, immediate
gratification, anti-authority behaviour, chauvinism,
rejection of mental labour, and celebration of the
informal group find expression in school and postschool.
CONCLUSION
Working class kids get working class jobs
because that is what they choose and what
they are driven to choose by the values that
they hold.