RESEARCH DESIGNS - QUALITATIVE

CASE STUDY

Case study research is descriptive research that involves describing and interpreting events, conditions, circumstances or situations that are occurring in the present. Case study seeks to engage with and report the complexities of social activity in order to represent the meanings that individual social actors bring to their social settings. It excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Darwin's theory of evolution was based, in essence, on case study research, not experimentation, for instance. In education, this is one of the most widely used qualitative approaches of research.

According to Odum, ―The case study method is a technique by which individual factor whether it be an institution or just an episode in the life of an individual or a group is analyzed in its relationship to any other in the group.‖ Its distinguishing characteristic is that each respondent is (individual, family, classroom, institution, cultural group) is taken as a unit and the unitary nature of individual case is the focus of analysis. It seeks to engage with and report the complexity of social and/or educational activity in order to represent the meanings that individual actors in the situation bring to that setting. It assumes that social and/or educational reality is created through social interactions, situated in specific contexts and histories and seeks to identify and describe followed by analysing and theorising. It assumes that things may not be as they seem and involve in-depth analysis so as to understand a ‗case‘ rather than generalising to a larger population. It derives much of its philosophical underpinnings and methodology from ethnography, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and phenomenology. It follows the ‗social constructivism‘ perspective of social sciences. Most case studies are usually qualitative in nature. Case study research excels at enabling us to understand a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies involve a detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Social scientists have made a wide use of this qualitative research method to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of ideas and extension of methods. Yin defines the case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.

However, some case studies can also be quantitative in nature especially if they deal with cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit analysis or institutional effectiveness. Many case studies have been done by combining the qualitative as well as the quantitative approaches in which initially the qualitative approach has been used and data have been collected using interviews and observations followed by the quantitative approach.

The approach of case studies ranges from general field studies to interview of a single individual or group. A case study can be precisely focused on a topic or can include a broad view of life and society. For example, a case study can focus on the life of a single gifted student, his actions, behaviour, abilities and so on in his school or it can focus on the social life of an individual including his entire background, experiences, motivations and aspirations that influence his behaviour society. Examples of case studies include a ‗case‘ of curriculum development, of innovative training, of disruptive behaviour, of an ineffective institution and so on. Case studies can be conducted to develop a ‗research-based‘ theory with which to analyse situations: a theory of, for and about practice. It is essential to note that since most case studies focus on a single unit or small number of units, the findings cannot be generalised to larger populations. However, its utility can not be underestimated. A case study is conducted with a fundamental assumption that though human behaviour is situation-specific and individualised, there is a predictable uniformity in basic human nature. A case study can be conducted to explore, to describe or to explain a phenomenon. It could be a synchronic study in which data are collected at one point of time or it could be longitudinal in nature. It could be conducted at a single site or it could be multi-site. In other words, it is inherently a very flexible methodology. A case typically refers to a person, either a learner, a teacher, an administrator or an entity, such as a school, a university, a classroom or a programme. In some policy-related research, the case could be a country. Case studies may be included in larger quantitative or qualitative studies to provide a concrete illustration of findings, or they may be conducted independently, either longitudinally or in a more restricted temporal period. Unlike ethnographic research, case studies do not necessarily focus on cultural aspects of a group or its members. Case study research may focus on a single case or multiple cases.

Characteristics of a Case Study

Following are the characteristics of a case study:

1. It is concerned with an exhaustive study of particular instances. A case is a particular instance of a phenomenon. In education, examples of phenomena include educational programmes, curricula, roles, events, interactions, policies, process, concept and so on. Its distinguishing feature is that each respondent (individual, class, institution or cultural group) is treated as a unit.

2. It emphasises the study of interrelationship between different attributes of a unit.

3. According to Cooley, case study deepens our perception and gives us a clear insight into life… It gets at behaviour directly and not by an indirect or abstract approach.

4. Each case study needs to have a clear focus which may include those aspects of the case on which the data collection and analysis will concentrate. The focus of a study could be a specific topic, theme, proposition or a working hypothesis.

5. It focuses on the natural history of the unit under study and its interaction with the social world around it.

6. The progressive records of personal experience in a case study reveals the internal strivings, tensions and motivations that lead to specific behaviours or actions of individuals or the unit of analysis.

7. In order to ensure that the case study is intensive and in-depth, data are collected over a long period of time from a variety of sources including human and material and by using a variety of techniques such as interviews and observations and tools such as questionnaires, documents, artefacts, diaries and so on.

8. According to Smith, as cited by Merriam, (1998), these studies are different from other forms of qualitative of research in that they focus on a ‗single unit‘ or a ‗bounded system‘. A system is said to be a bounded system if it includes a finite or limited number of cases to interviewed or observed within a definite amount of time.

9. It may be defined as an in-depth study of one or more instances of a phenomenon- an individual, a group, an institution, a classroom or an event- with the objective of discovering meaning, investigating processes, gaining an insight and an understanding of an individual, group or phenomena within the context in such a way that it reflects the real life context of the participants involved in the phenomena. These individuals, groups, institutions, classrooms or events may represent the unit of analysis in a case study. For example, in a case study, the unit of analysis may be a classroom and the researcher may decide to investigate the events in three such classrooms.

10. According to Yin, case studies typically involve investigation of a phenomenon for which the boundaries between the phenomenon and its context are not clearly evident. These boundaries should be clearly clarified as part of the case study. He further emphasises the importance of conducting a case study in its real life context. In education, the classroom or the school is the real life context of a case study as the participants of such a case study are naturally found in these settings.

11. There are two major perspectives in a case study, namely, the etic perspective and the emic perspective. The etic perspective is that of the researcher (i.e. the outsider‘s perspective) whereas the emic perspective is that of the research participants including teachers, principals and students (i.e. the insider‘s perspective). This enables the researcher to study the local, immediate meanings of social actions of the participants and to study how they view the social situation of the setting and the phenomenon under study. A comprehensive case study includes both the perspectives.

12. A case study can be a single-site study or a multi-site study.

13. Cases are selected on the basis of dimensions of a theory (pattern-matching) or on diversity on a dependent phenomenon (explanation-building).

14. No generalization is made to a population beyond cases similar to those studied.

15. Conclusions are phrased in terms of model elimination, not model validation. Numerous alternative theories may be consistent with data gathered from a case study.

16. Case study approaches have difficulty in terms of evaluation of low-probability causal paths in a model as any given case selected for study may fail to display such a path, even when it exists in the larger population of potential cases.

17. Acknowledging multiple realities in qualitative case studies, as is now commonly done, involves discerning the various perspectives of the researcher, the case/participant, and others, which may or may not converge.

Components of a Case Study Design

According to Yin, following are the five component elements of a case study design:

1. Study questions

2. Study propositions (if any are being used) or theoretical framework

3. Identification of the units of analysis

4. The logical linking of the data to the propositions (or theory)

5. The criteria for interpreting the findings.

The purpose of a case study is a detailed examination of a specific activity, event, institution, or person/s. The hypotheses or the research questions are stated broadly at the beginning at the study. A study‘s questions are directed towards ‗how‘ and ‗why‘ considerations and enunciating and defining these are the first task of the researcher. The study‘s propositions could be derived from these ‗how‘ and ‗why‘ questions. These propositions could help in developing a theoretical focus. However, all case studies may not have propositions. For instance, an exploratory case study may give only a purpose statement or criteria that could guide the research process. The unit of analysis defines what the case study is focussing on, whether an individual, a group, n institution, a city, a society, a nation and so on. Linkages between the data and the propositions (or theory) and the criteria for interpreting the findings are usually the least developed aspects of case studies (Yin, 1994).

Types of Case Study Designs Yin (1994) and Winston (1997) have identified several types of case study designs. These are as follows:

(A) Exploratory Case Study Design: In this type of case study design, field work and data collection are carried out before determining the research questions. It examines a topic on which there is very little prior research. Such a study is a prelude to a large social scientific study. However, before conducting such an exploratory case study, its organisational framework is designed in advance so as to ensure its usefulness as a pilot study of a larger, more comprehensive research. The purpose of the exploratory study is to elaborate a concept, build up a model or advocate propositions.

(B) Explanatory Case Study Design: These are useful when providing explanation to phenomena under consideration. These explanations are patterns implying that one type of variation observed in a case study is systematically related to another variation. Such a pattern can be a relational pattern or a causal pattern depending on the conceptual framework of the study. In complex studies of organisations and communities, multivariate cases are included so as to examine a plurality of influences. Yin and Moore (1988) suggest the use of a pattern-matching technique in such a research wherein several pieces of information from the same case may be related to some theoretical proposition.

(C) Descriptive Case Study Design: A descriptive case study necessitates that the researcher present a descriptive theory which establishes the overall framework for the investigator to follow throughout the study. This type of case study requires formulation and identification of a practicable theoretical framework before articulating research questions. It is also essential to determine the unit of analysis before beginning the research study. In this type of case study, the researcher attempts to portray a phenomenon and conceptualize it, including statements that recreate a situation and context as much as possible.

(D) Evaluative Case Study Design : Often, in responsive evaluation, quasi-legal evaluation and expertise-based evaluation, a case study is conducted to make judgments. This may include a deep account of the phenomenon being evaluated and identification of most important and relevant constructs, themes and patterns. Evaluative case studies can be conducted on educational programmes funded by the Government such as ―SarvaShikshaAbhiyan‖ or Orientation Programmes and Refresher Courses conducted by Academic Staff Colleges for college teachers or other such programmes organised by the State and Local Governments for secondary and primary school teachers.

Steps of Conducting a Case Study

Following are the steps of a case study:

1. Identifying a current topic which is of interest to the researcher.

2. Identifying research questions and developing hypotheses (if any).

3. Determining the unit of sampling and the number of units. Select the cases.

4. Identifying sources, tools and techniques of data collection. These could include interviews, observations, documentation, student records and school databases. Collect data in the field.

5. Evaluating and Analysing Data.

6. Report writing.