1. CASE STUDY
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION & KEITH MORRISON
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
• 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
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2. 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;
• Case studies often include direct
observations (participant and non-
participant) and interviews.
WHAT IS A CASE?
• A person;
• A group;
• An organization;
• An event;
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3. 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;
• Combination of description, analysis and
interpretation;
• Focus on actors and participants;
• Let the data speak for themselves (don’t
over-interpret).
TYPES OF CASE STUDY
• Exploratory (pilot);
• Descriptive (e.g. narrative);
• Explanatory.
• 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).
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4. 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’ in the design,
– e.g. a study of school might also focus on 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 in each of the different cases,
– 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?
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5. 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
• Observations (structured to
unstructured);
• Field notes;
• Interviews (structured to
unstructured);
• Documents;
• Numbers.
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6. TRIANGULATION
• Data source triangulation
– researcher looks for the data to remain the same
in different contexts;
• Investigator triangulation
– several investigators examine the same
phenomenon;
• Theory triangulation
– investigators with different view points interpret
the same results; and
• Methodological triangulation
– one approach is followed by another, to increase
confidence in the interpretation
ROLE OF RESEARCHER
(Stake, 1995)
TEACHER
ADVOCATE
EVALUATOR
BIOGRAPHER
INTERPRETER
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7. 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;
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8. 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
• Construct validity
• Internal validity
• External validity
• Concurrent validity
• Convergent validity
• Ecological validity
• Reliability
• Avoidance of bias
THE NEED FOR A CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
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9. A GOOD CASE STUDY RESEARCHER
MUST BE . . .
• An effective questioner, listener and prober
• An effective observer
• Able to make informed inferences
• Adaptable to changing 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.
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10. 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).
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11. 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
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12. DATA TYPES IN CASE STUDY
• 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.
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13. 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
• Difficult to organize;
• Limited generalizability;
• Problems of cross-checking;
• Risk of bias, selectivity and subjectivity;
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14. 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 in 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
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15. 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.
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16. 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 post-
school;
• 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 post-
school.
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.
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