This document discusses key aspects of qualitative case study research. It outlines that case studies allow for an in-depth exploration of a phenomenon within its real-life context. The document discusses different approaches to case studies by researchers like Yin, Stake and Creswell. It also addresses important considerations for case study research like purposefully defining the case, collecting multiple sources of data, ensuring validity and ethics, and producing engaging written reports for academic audiences.
The above defends why qualitiative research should be used for a particular piece of research, important to defend this , main reason will be so that the researcher gains a holistic view of the case
Exploration â not seeking right answers data can be huge/unwieldy â if you have too many people within case
Find your fit
Social media (and collaboration, social constructivism) is the phenomena you are investigating, the case=group of academics
The cases is the learner or school, first years
Stake focuses on a case can be very small,
Lack of rigour â this is why you triangulate â Yin and Stake both mention this, most case study literature mentions this Even though only weak generalisations can be made, you can refer to case studies if published works and are deemed to be valid, it just means that you need to always keep in mind that case study data will be different for each case, as basically people could give different data, this is what interpretative research is all about â nothing is black and white
In your research methods section you need to acknowledge qualitative research as being interpretative , acknowledge ethics also
How could I better understand the students, get them to learn more effectively through reflection How can I better understand this group of academics use of social media (for collaboration)
Who are the people/person? Social media (and social collaboration etc) is the phenomena
Case â group of academics in Maynooth (that seems big to me , i would refine it) Issue - social media +(collaborations etc) Data â how will you obtain it: survey and interviews Analysis â how will you analyse it, Yin mentions strategies, then you will triangulation to ensure validity Assertion: What findings can you make
Rigour â mention interpretative studies data can be partial to person, to combat this, use multiple forms of data collect, then triangulate results , but with findings only weak generalisations can be made, because this is only a study of 1 case (i.e. this group) and with another group different data could occur (that is the nature of interpretative research
So if you choose not to use focus groups, use Stake to back up your argument
How is your interpretation valid - it will be valid because you have thought about using different data collection means, and triangulation , also taken ethics into account Ethics: so you need to get them to sign ethic consent forms??
categorical aggregation - coding
Get them to look at photocopy Maybe activity or discussions on advantages /disadvantages of triangulation?
Compare the data given by your respondents on survey and interviews Do they give same responses or are they different Be careful , can take long time if you have a lot of people in the case
Can be an unplanned
This could be part of a thesis, if an interesting event /story occurs. May not be suitable for journal writing as word limit, but could depend on way it is written into text
Potential readers of journal, 1 st , 2 nd marker, external examiner
Ask what journal have students chosen? Photo copy 3 types of different journal type structure
Lisa be strategic: If you don't know what literature you want to use yet Follows this for writing from now 1- write research methods draft 2 - Draft the bibliography/references 3 write literature review 4 analyse your data, write findings as you analyse 5- Finish writing findings 6- Write introduction 7 - Then start your next draft of entire document You will have Lots of drafts