The Research Design: Case study

In this section, I discuss my use of Case study as a methodological approach and what this entailed. I understand a case as a system, an entity or unit around which there

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are specific boundaries (Merriam & Associates, 2002). Yin (2006) notes that Case study allows researchers to conduct an in-depth investigation of a case within its real-life context. According to Stake (2000) case study represents: “a choice of what is to be studied...As a form of research, case study is defined by interest in an individual case, not by the methods of inquiry used” (p.443). Thus, case studies are distinguished by the subjects/objects of their inquiry and less by the methods they employ (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000). Researchers often have intrinsic interest in studying a case and selecting the case(s) to be studied represents a crucial step in undertaking case study research (Stake, 2000; Yin, 2006). Similarly, Yin (2006) notes that: “A good case study design, at a minimum, involves defining your case, justifying your choice of a single-case or multiple-case study, and deliberately adopting or minimizing theoretical perspectives” (p.114).

I employed case study methodology to generate information-rich data about disabled and mad students’ perspectives. I defined my case study as disabled and mad students’ insights into the workings of the institutional norms that come to define their existence and how these are resisted and challenged. More specifically, my case study examines the socio-spatial experiences of self-identifying undergraduate and graduate Ontario mad and disabled university students in relation to institutional access and academic accommodation policies and practices. I used a multi-sited case study research design and selected two university case sites on the basis of specific criteria I explicate in the following section. The sites were selected through critical case sampling (Patton, 1990) on the basis that they demonstrated different institutional philosophical leanings. I deliberately drew theoretically on Foucault and social-spatial theorists as discussed to

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ground my analysis and make sense of participants situated socio-spatial lived

experiences. The socio-spatial and embodied experiences and perspectives of disabled and mad students, given the potentiality of their voices to provide critical insights into effects of sanist and disabling institutional constraints, bio-medicalizing discourses, represents the case being studied. Disabled and mad students provided insights into the workings of the institutional norms that come to define their existence and how these are resisted and challenged.

Case study addresses questions that are descriptive and explanatory and is well suited in producing firsthand understandings of people and events (Yin, 2006). According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2000): case studies necessitate “in-depth

investigation…case studies investigate and report complex dynamic and unfolding interactions of events, human relationships and other factors in a unique instance”

(p.181). Through Case Study, I sought to deeply examine the socio-spatial experiences of disabled and mad students in relation to access and academic accommodation policies and practices as my case.

Case studies often benefit from drawing from multiple sources of evidence (Stake, 2000; Yin, 2006). In this research, I triangulated data from multiple sources and drew upon multiple social actors’ perspectives. I also triangulated respondents’ voices and experiential accounts to add strength to this study. According to Yin (2006): “In

collecting case study data, the main idea is to “triangulate” or establish converging lines of evidence to make your findings as robust as possible” (p. 115). I viewed triangulation as a process, clarifying meaning by identifying various ways a case could be seen/ interpreted (Stake, 2000). The multiple realities within which people live may be

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represented through triangulation (Stake, 2000). I used triangulation of data by examining existing research literature, university policy documents, empirical data from field

observations, and experiential interview accounts of individuals at two university case sites. I talked across multiple sources, integrating them for conformation or

complementarity, while also finding differing viewpoints and perspectives expressing contention and disagreement.

In qualitative inquiry case study usually addresses issues of experiential

knowledge, and pays attention to social, political and other significant contexts (Stake, 2000). According to Stake (2000): “Case study facilitates the conveying of experience of actors and stakeholders as well as the experience of studying the case…it does this largely with narratives and situational descriptions of case activity, personal relationship, and group interpretation” (p. 454). Thus, case studies are bounded but also pay attention to the wider societal political, socioeconomic milieu. Stake (2000) also suggests that intrinsic case studies aim at gaining a better understanding of a case, capturing its particularity and ordinariness. I drew on disabled and mad students’ perspectives in university settings to gain a better understanding of their socio-spatial experiences in relation to access and academic accommodation policies and practices. Mad and disabled subjects provided unique particular socio-spatial insights into university governance and access and accommodation policies and practices. Case study thus allows for reflection on human experiences in ways that may inform and influence public policy in meaningful ways.

Stake (2000) also notes that: “Case studies are of value in refining theory, suggesting the complexities of further investigation as well as helping to establish the

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limits of generalizability” (p. 460). Case studies are characterized by thick description (Stake, 2000). As Patton (2002) discusses:

The case study approach to qualitative analysis constitutes a specific way of collecting, organizing, and analyzing data; in that sense it represents an analysis process. The purpose is to gather comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth

information about each case of interest. The analysis process results in a product: a case study. Thus, the term case study can refer to either the process of analysis or the product of analysis, or both. (p. 447)

Case study inquiry represented a viable framework for investigating mad and disabled students’ socio-spatial experiences since it allowed for rich description of people and events in particular institutional contexts and spaces. It represents both a “process of inquiry” and “product of that inquiry” (Stake, 2000, p.444). I employed a case study design as a process of inquiry in its concern to investigate the particularity and

boundedness of disabled and mad students embodied and socio-spatial experiences. As Stake (2000) points out, case study allows for in-depth investigation of people and events in real-life contexts and may focus on an individual, group of people, a particular event, system or happening. Case study approaches may examine people, critical

incidents/major events, and various settings, places, sites, or locations (Patton, 2002): “Well constructed case studies are holistic and context sensitive…Cases are units of analysis. What constitutes a case, or unit of analysis, is usually determined during the design stage and becomes the basis for purposeful sampling in qualitative inquiry” (p. 447). Case study is useful in examining an object of study that is specific and unique within a bounded system (Stake, 2000). In my research I investigated students with both

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visible and invisible disabilities attending universities to better understand their unique situated socio-spatial experiences. Such a broad focus permitted graduate and

undergraduate mad and disabled students to come forward to offer their insights. I was thus able to draw on a wide range of mad and disabled students’ diverse perspectives at multiple case sites.

Yin (2006) suggests that case study research requires defining the case to be studied by reviewing relevant literature, collecting some early data, possibly revising original research question(s), and deciding whether to do a single case or set of case studies (multiple-case studies). I decided to favoured an in-depth case study approach that examined the socio-spatial experiences of mad and disabled students. I treated this

holistically as my case study complex issue of investigation. Case study allowed for in- depth inquiry that critically examines institutional practices and regimes of truth. This study employed a case design where particular attention was paid to how mad and disabled students are represented in various institutional settings and contexts. The ways academic accommodations and access issues spatially impact disabled students is central to this line of inquiry. Case study represents a viable design to understand voices and investigate disabled students’ socio-spatial university experiences.

I was explicitly motivated to undertake this study due to my familiarity of the university sites, and proximity and access to the case sites. In this chapter, I later reflect upon my onto-epistemological frameworks and positionality and how this mediated and informed my research including my research questions, how I analysed and interpreted data, and rationales regarding choices I made throughout the research process. These

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considerations shaped the case I chose to study and how I established boundaries of inquiry.

The establishment of boundaries that act to contain a system is a defining feature of case study inquiry. According to Merriam and Associates (2002), a researcher should provide information that supports, informs and justifies their case bounding decisions:

The process of conducting a case study begins with the selection of the “case”. The selection is done purposefully, not randomly; that is a particular person, site, program, process, community, or other bounded system is selected because it exhibits characteristics of interest to the researcher. The case might be unique or typical, representative of a common practice, or never before encountered. The selection depends on what you want to learn and the significance that knowledge might have for extending theory or improving practice. (p. 179)

Case studies are set in temporal, geographical, institutional and other contexts, and can also be defined with particular reference to characteristics of individuals/groups that allow for boundaries to be drawn around the case (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000). In this study, the research questions helped to delineate boundaries as the views and

knowledges of disabled and mad students centrally inform this inquiry. Two University sites were purposefully selected based on their different institutional philosophical articulations and my access to the case sites (Patton, 1990). This study was bounded by decisions of institutional sites in Ontario and respondent population selection of mad and disabled students, university instructors, and disability office workers.

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