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Case Study Research Methods Guide

Case studies are a research method that allows close examination of a phenomenon within a specific context. They investigate contemporary real-life issues through detailed analysis of a limited number of examples. There are three main types: exploratory case studies explore phenomena of interest without firm hypotheses, descriptive case studies narratively describe phenomena as they occur, and explanatory case studies closely examine data to explain why phenomena happen. Pattern matching can be used to investigate complex phenomena in explanatory case studies.

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65 views7 pages

Case Study Research Methods Guide

Case studies are a research method that allows close examination of a phenomenon within a specific context. They investigate contemporary real-life issues through detailed analysis of a limited number of examples. There are three main types: exploratory case studies explore phenomena of interest without firm hypotheses, descriptive case studies narratively describe phenomena as they occur, and explanatory case studies closely examine data to explain why phenomena happen. Pattern matching can be used to investigate complex phenomena in explanatory case studies.

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CASE STUDY

◦ Case study method enables a researcher to closely examine the data within a specific context.
◦ In most cases, a case study method selects a small geographical area or a very limited number of
individuals as the subjects of study.
◦ Case studies, in their true essence, explore and case study as a research method investigate contemporary
real-life phenomenon through detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions,
and their relationships.
◦ Yin (1984:23) defines the case study research method “as an empirical inquiry that
investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which
multiple sources of evidence are used.”
Types of Case Study
◦ Yin (1984) notes three categories, namely exploratory, descriptive and explanatory case studies.
◦ First, exploratory case studies set to explore any phenomenon in the data which serves as a point of
interest to the researcher.
◦ For instance, a researcher conducting an exploratory case study on individual’s reading process may ask
general questions, such as, “Does a student use any strategies when he reads a text?” and “if so, how
often?”.
◦ These general questions are meant to open up the door for further examination of the phenomenon
observed.
Descriptive case studies
◦ Set to describe the natural phenomena which occur within the data in question, for instance, what
different strategies are used by a reader and how the reader use them. The goal set by the
researcher is to describe the data as they occur.
◦ McDonough and McDonough (1997) suggest that descriptive case studies may be in a narrative form. An
example of a descriptive case study is the journalistic description of the Watergate scandal by two
reporters (Yin, 1984).
◦ The challenge of a descriptive case study is that the researcher must begin with a descriptive theory to
support the description of the phenomenon or story.
◦ An example of a descriptive case study using pattern-matching procedure is the one conducted by Pyecha
(1988) on special education children.
Explanatory Case Studies
◦ Examine the data closely both at a surface and deep level in order to explain the phenomena in the
data.
◦ For instance, a researcher may ask the reason as to why a student uses an inferencing (conclusion
reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning strategy in reading) (Zaidah, 2003).
◦ On the basis of the data, The researcher may then form a theory and set to test this theory (McDonough
and McDonough, 1997).
◦ Furthermore, explanatory cases are also deployed for causal studies where pattern-matching can be used
to investigate certain phenomena in very complex and multivariate cases.
◦ Pattern matching is the process of checking whether a specific sequence of characters/tokens/data exists
among the given data

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