CASE STUDIES
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.
ELEMENTS OF CASE STUDY
vivid and holistic description (‘thick
description’) and portrayal of events, contexts and
situations through the eyes of participants
(including the researcher);
 Rich,
 Contexts
are temporal, physical, organizational,
institutional, interpersonal;
 Chronological
narrative
 Combination
of description, analysis
and interpretation;
 Focus
 Let
on actors and participants;
the data speak for themselves
(don’t over-interpret).
TYPES OF CASE STUDIES


There are many types of case studies identified by
different researchers (Cohen, et al., 2008)
Yin (1984):
Exploratory (a pilot to other studies or research questions)
 Descriptive (providing narrative accounts)
 Explanatory (testing theories)


Stake (1994):
Intrinsic (to understand the case in question)
 Instrumental (examining a particular case to gain insight
into an issue or a theory)
 Collective (groups of individual studies to gain a fuller
picture)

TYPES OF CASE STUDIES

Meriam (1988)
Ethnographic
 Historical
 Psychological
 Sociological


Stenhouse (1985)
Ethnographic – single in-depth study
 Action research case study
 Evaluative case study
 Educational case study

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.
PROBLEMS WITH CASE STUDIES
 Difficult
to organize;
 Limited
generalizability;
 Problems
 Risk
of cross-checking;
of bias, selectivity and subjectivity.
UNIT OF ANALYSIS

Unit of analysis is the actual source of
information







An individual (a student who has trouble speaking in
English)
A classroom (a writing classroom)
A school (a private school)
A program (a national curriculum project)
An event (a celebration)
An activity (learning to write an essay)
An ongoing process (student teaching)
DATA IN CASE STUDIES

Observations (structured to unstructured);

Field notes;

Interviews (structured to unstructured);

Documents;

Numbers.
CONTINUA OF DATA COLLECTION, TYPES AND
ANALYSIS IN CASE STUDY RESEARCH
Data Collection
Unstructured
(field notes)
(Interviews – open to closed)
Structured
(survey, census data)
Data Types
Narrative
(field notes)
(coded qualitative data and
non parametric statistics)
Numeric
(ratio scale data)
Data Analysis
Journalistic
(impressionistic)
(content analysis)
Statistical
(inferential statistics)
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY



Like other research methods, it is important to
demonstrate reliability and validity in case
studies.
This might be difficult because of the uniqueness
of the situations; they may be inconsistent with
other case studies.
Thus, there are some questions to be answered
while conducting a case study:
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY





What exactly is a case? How is it identified and
selected?
What kind of case study is this (what is the purpose)?
To what extent is triangulation required and how will
it be addressed?
How will the balance be struck between uniqueness
and generalization?
What is the most appropriate form of writing up and
reporting the case study?
REFERENCES
Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2008).
Research Methods in Education. Routledge: New
York
Denzin, N. (1984). The research act. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Hitchcock, G. & Hughes, D. (1995). Research and
the Teacher (2nd Edition). London: Routledge
Yin, R. K. (1994). Case Study Research: Design and
Methods (2nd Edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage