The Rationale for Case Study Methodology

123 For Yin (2013) a case study is an empirical inquiry which focuses on a

contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context and boundaries between phenomenon and its context are not clearly evident. A case study is a suitable approach for studying complex social phenomena with many variables and multiple sources of evidence with both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools. So, Yin (2013) holds the view that a case study is an empirical enquiry which investigates a contemporary phenomenon in a real life context. Basit further refines this viewpoint by adding that

A case study provides a unique portrayal of real people in a real social situation by means of vivid accounts of events, feelings and perceptions (2010, p. 19).

According to McDonald and Walker (1975, p. 2) a case study is “the examination of an instance in action”; where the use of the word instance is important and deliberate in that it suggests the findings can be generalised; however; a

contrasting definition from Stake (1995, p. xi) of a case study as “the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity”. It is this later definition that this research has used as the underlying methodology. Stake (1995) goes on to identify three board types of case study (Instrumental, collective and intrinsic) and Bassey (1999) adds a further five (theory-seeking, theory testing, story-telling and picture drawing and evaluative). Yin (2013) identifies five categories (explanatory, descriptive, illustrative, exploratory and meta-evaluation) and argues that explanatory is the most important “to explain the causal links in real-life interventions that are too complex to survey” (p. 15). These broad categories of case serve to exemplify the complexities and

problems for the researcher when using case–based methodology as a basis for social science research. Nevertheless this research was grounded in an

explanatory case study approach.

Using a case study methodology to investigate complex phenomena invites the risk of ill-defined or poorly conceived approaches. The definition of the case or object under study and the issues arising from the limits or what Carter and Sealey (2009, p. 69) call “boundedness” of the study are serious ontological and epistemological questions for the researcher. Simons (2009) argues that

bounding the case whilst a good idea “may change once you enter the field” (p. 29); and that a single case might be a class or an institution and the boundaries include people, politics, policies, location, to which I would add pedagogy.

124 Boundaries might need to be refocused and can be somewhat fluid and

responsive to outcomes of the fieldwork; however with boundary fluidity comes dangers such as lack of compactness and conciseness.

In contrast Ragin (1992) argues that researchers should be absolutely rigorous and explicit about the limits and processes framing the case under study in order to extract clear meanings from the work. Identification of the domain and

processes further frames the case and provides realism for what can and should be included. Case study is therefore both flexible and time independent and is not constrained by the selected methods (Simons, 2009, p. 23) but it does provide the opportunity for a “self-reflexive approach to understand the case and themselves [researcher]” (p. 23).

Whereas objects or phenomena from natural sciences are susceptible to case methodology as a means of providing “useful information about similar objects [cases]” Carter and Sealey (2009, p. 70) argue that when applied to social sciences it inevitably involves a degree of reflectivity. Archer (2003) argues that this reflective nature of the research involves an “active process in which we continuously converse with ourselves, precisely in order to define what we do believe, do desire and intend to do" (p. 34). Explicitly identifying your actions, values, beliefs, preferences and biases that could potentially influence the research process enables others to see how the interpretations and conclusions are achieved. Probably more importantly it allows the researcher and others the opportunity to detect potential bias in the study.

Using participant teachers for the case study not only provides “opportunities for collecting case-study data, but also it provides major problems” (Yin, 2013, p. 112). The evidence collected from this approach can be “insightful into

interpersonal behaviour and motives” (ibid, p. 162) but has to be counter- balanced to prevent “bias due to participant-observer’s manipulations” (ibid, p. 162). Potential biases of the researcher to steer or guide the study and the tension between the ability to act as an observer as well as a participant should not be underestimated. The prospect of being able to gain access to situations [classrooms], events [lessons] and group [teachers and pupils] is fundamental to this researcher and I would argue the only way of achieving the evidence

125 More generally Cohen et al. (2013, p. 181) explore the notion that a case study is “a specific instance that is frequently designed to illustrate a more general

principle”. They add that a case study “provides a unique example of real people in real situations” (p. 181). The concept of generalisation from a case study is supported by Robson (2002) who argues that case studies offer analytical generalisations. This might be seen as supporting the viewpoint that tasks

designed on a generic set of underlying constructs in a particular context (division of fractions) can be generalised to other contexts. However Pring (2004, p. 40) argued that “the uniqueness of events or actions” points to the case study as a “unique case or instance” and therefore care needs to be taken when inferring generalisation based on a single context. Pedrosa et al. (2012) suggest that case study research should be evaluated therefore not only on results (validity and reliability) but also on the entire research and importantly the process should be transparent to the audience to achieve validity and reliability.