Rob Walker

1
What is a Case Study?(The use of case studies
in research and evaluation)

• Rob Walker
• Centre for Applied Research in Education
• University of East Anglia

2
If you dont read anything else - read this!

• Robert E Stake The Art of Case Study Research.
  Thousand Oaks Ca. Sage 1995
• Case study is the study of the particularity
  and complexity of a single caseemphasising
  episodes of nuance, the sequentiality of
  happenings in context, the wholeness of the
  individual.

3
Some sources

• http//www.uea.ac.uk/care
• people-gtRob Walker-gt Teaching Folio/Recent
  Writing
• http//icare.typepad.com/research_journal_india/
• http//www.col.org/resources/startupguides/prest.h
  tm
• A4 Getting and using qualitative data

https//www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post?__modee
dit_entryid575625blog_id12720
4

• Researcher Tell me what qualitative methods
  means, Does it mean that I can do research
  without having to do statistics?
• Adviser There are some who define qualitative
  methods as a way of doing research with words,
  rather than research with numbers but to do so
  suggests that qualitative researchers never use
  numbers (which is not true) and that quantitative
  research does not use words (equally untrue).
  Most researchers have a more complex view. Some
  qualitative researchers claim that the key
  difference is that they emphasise depth of
  understanding rather than aiming for
  generalisation. . . .

5
Some preliminary claims

• Case study is not a method case study uses
  methods
• Harry Torrance (and others) describe case study
  as an approach
• Case study is inherently conservative
• Case studies aim to describe things as they are,
  not as they might be or could be

6
Some key current problems/issues

• EthicsPrincipled procedures vs protocols
• Authorship
• Researcher as author
• Readerly writing and writerly writing
• ParticipationDemocratic evaluation and action
  research
• New and emerging technologies

7
What is the question to which case study is an
answer?

• Why case studies have proved useful in program
  evaluation
• Paradigm debates among academics
• Case studies and the practitioner (action
  research)

8
What is a case study?

• Story telling -gt Case study -gt Ethnography (Terry
  Denny)
• The collection (not the making) of judgments,
  perceptions and narratives (Stake)
• Realist, confessional and impressionistic
  tales (John van Maanen)
• Selection in terms of issues (organised and
  edited)
• Including response and building dialogue

9
Triangulation

• Triangulation is a key to validity but
• The stronger ones belief in constructed
  reality, the more difficult it is to believe that
  any complex observation or interpretation can be
  triangulated
• Robert Stake 1995 (p 114)

10
Common questions

• How representative are single samples? (plus
  reliability and validity issues)
• Problems of observation and the observer
• Case studies and case records (Stenhouse)

11
Further References

• Stake, R.E. (1995)The Art of Case Study
  Research, Thousand Oaks Ca. Sage
• Denny, T. unpublished paper 1977
• Stenhouse, L.A. (1978) Case study and case
  records Towards a contemporary history of
  education. British Educational Research Journal,
  4(2), 21-39
• Somekh B, Lewin, C. (2004) eds Handbook of
  Research Methods for the Social Sciences, London
  Sage
• Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales from the field On
  writing ethnography. Chicago University of
  Chicago Press