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SECTION 1
THE CASE STUDY APPROACH IN EDUCATION RESEARCH
Chapter 1
Defining case study in education research
Chapter 2
Ideas as the foundation for case study
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CHAPTER 1
DEFINING CASE STUDY IN EDUCATION RESEARCH
- Personal definitions of case study
- Development of case study use in education
- Intrinsic versus instrumental case study
- Models of case study – making choices
Introducing case study
We believe that it is possible to use case study in educational research to enhance our understanding of contexts, communities and individuals. By helping to provide an accessible text which guides you through both the practicalities of carrying out research and the deeper issues surrounding them, powerful progress can be made in enabling new researchers to make constructive use of a research approach which can begin to capture the complexity of learning and teaching and the contexts and communities surrounding them. However, it is perhaps only by looking critically at the choices we make about case study, the ways in which we go about using it to shape data collection and analysis and the clarity with which we report case study, that we can argue for the quality and value of this approach to research in educational settings.
Prior to investigating definitions and changes in case study use in education, it can be helpful to reflect on your existing beliefs about what case study may mean and what shape it may have taken in your experiences up to now. Retain any notes from this preliminary activity so that you can revisit them as you progress through the book.
What are your assumptions about case study?
Before you read this first chapter, consider your own understanding of case study based on your reading and experiences to date – these may come from the media, from reading or personal experiences.
- What do you think are the key characteristics of case study based on your reflections?
- Is there anything distinctive about case study? If yes, what might this be?
- Write a brief paragraph outlining your conclusions.
Retain these accounts, as you may wish to return to them as you develop your understanding of case study to help you reflect on your changing perspective. Now, to establish an understanding of how case study has developed in research within education contexts, this next section considers the political influences key figures who have played a part in shaping case study use.
Developing use of case study in education contexts
In order to understand current work around case study use in education, it is important to consider, briefly, how this has changed and developed over the last half century. Case study use in education research began to gain great prominence in the 1970s in the UK and the USA as a reaction against the dominant positivist model which focused on measurement and statistical analysis as the means of attaining valid and valuable insights into schools and classrooms (Elliott and Lukes˘, 2008). In the UK, Lawrence Stenhouse was a particularly strong proponent of the use of case study and provides justification for case study as a means of gaining greater understanding within education communities (1978, 1979) and we will consider his particular contribution and arguments as well as developing issues around case study work in education.
Despite, the ebb and flow of politicians and policy, in the UK and USA in particular, where in the 1990s and early twenty-first century, simplistic and often narrow notions of what works and what reflects ‘good’ research have emerged (Oancea and Pring, 2008), case study continues to play an important role in education research. In the following section, we consider the emerging contexts for case study development, particularly in the UK and USA, key individuals establishing their own versions of case study and the frequently contested concept of case study itself.
Policy perspectives on research and case study
The emerging focus on case study as a means of carrying out education research took place through the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the UK and North America. To some extent, it could be argued that this was a reaction against the heavily quantitative bias in research in education up to that point and the primacy of measurement as a means of capturing meaningful data. Oancea and Pring (2008) chart the perceived policy desire for answers and evidence which can have universal applications during the 1990s and early twenty-first century in North America and the UK. They highlight the increasingly critical commentary of policymakers with regard to education research and the focus on a narrow orthodoxy (2008) of research which was concerned with ‘what works’, and the superiority of, for example, experimental designs and with ‘scientific’ research, particularly randomized control trials. In the USA, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, 2001 focused strongly on a narrow kind of scientific research as a basis for understanding and improving education. It could be argued that these approaches have assumed that there is a universally applicable model of research that ignores the complexity of education settings and the significance of the diverse individuals and organizations that enhance that complexity. This ‘scientific’ approach is also in danger of seriously disempowering those at the heart of the education process while failing to recognize the value of different forms of engagement with issues in education. In the face of such challenges to education research, case study emerges as a possible champion that might be able to deepen understanding in real contexts rather than simply providing decontextualized ‘evidence’. A striving for clear definitions of case study and modes of working within this genre in order to ensure quality has been the focus of much writing and debate over the last 30 plus years. In the next section, we consider some of the key figures who have been important voices in the development of case study.
People and case study
Stenhouse (1978, 1979) was an early supporter of case study in education research; he felt strongly that this was a means of capturing complexity but that a key component of such an approach had to be that it was verifiable. There was confidence in what might be discovered and used to enhance decision-making. Emerging approaches to case study were also being impacted by notions of ethnography which had its roots in anthropological research. Indeed, some researchers viewed case study as essentially ethnography. Stenhouse (1979) challenged such a view stating that originally ethnographic research had relied on certain assumptions that were not applicable in education. These assumptions were that the researcher would lack familiarity with the contexts and situations to be studied, that researchers would tend to draw on theory from ethnography rather than education, and that they would not normally make copies of field notes available. In education case studies, on the other hand, he argued that educationalists tend to be familiar with settings where research occurs and that there should be limits to theory specific to other disciplines being imposed on education. Finally, he argues that for research to be verifiable, field notes should be available as an important record of the study. Consideration of the possible significance of a case record as a means of enhancing verification and perceived quality in case study, is continued in Chapter 6.
Robert Yin’s work (1983) was one of the few books on case study available in the 1980s and he writes from a broad social science perspective rather than an education specific one. His background is in quantitative work and his view of case study reflects this as he attempts to make it fit a quantitative model of research. Characterizing case study as a method, he has identified (2009) three forms of case study: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. The first of these, exploratory, is simply characterized as the collection of data and subsequent looking for patterns in the data. Next, descriptive sets out a consideration of possible theories to frame the study and research questions to focus it. Finally, explanatory takes the previous two forms a step further as it proceeds to answer or explain the how or why of the issue, situation, person or group being studied. He also tends to try to impose quantitative concepts of validity on case study research. We would argue that these concepts of validity are too simplistic for educational settings and that different definitions of quality need to be considered for case study. Later in this chapter, we suggest alternative approaches to case study models and how these might be defined.
Sharan Merriam (1988) is somewhat unusual in that her definition of case study has evolved over the years. In her first book, she focused on the end product of case study: ‘A qualitative case study is an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit’ (Merriam, 1988: 21). Ten years and much research later, she revised her definition to focus on the case rather than the outcome, agreeing with Smith (1978) and Stake (1995) that the most important aspect of case study is determining that the case is a bounded unit. She writes, the case is ‘a thing, a single entity, a unit around which there are boundaries. I can “fence in” what I am going to study’ (Merriam, 1998: 27). She admits, however, that case study may be defined as the process used, the case or bounded unit, or the end product and that all may be approp...
