taking a Case Study approch to a WBL project .... making arguments?

I have had a really interesting discussion with Grace Hoy about Case Study approach. While there are different ways of conducting Case Studies, I waned to post about the focus of the discussion with Grace. One of my thoughts on Case Study is that it is a ‘flexible’ research design. It’s often suggested as such in the literature. I suggest that what this means is that the tools you use to gather and analyse data are variable. One case study might place emphasis on interviews, another might emphasise observation.

However, I believe all good case studies should present ‘arguments’ and I hope to explain why.

When I read a Case Study I expect certain things:

· I expect the researcher to have some expert understanding of the ‘instance’ to be studied;

· I expect the researcher to develop certain ideas that they transmit to me as arguments to explain the phenomena or ‘instance’ under study;

· I expect the arguments to hang together effectively;

· I expect the arguments to be supported by evidence from the data gathered and cited so I can follow up on interesting ideas;

· I expect the arguments to be supported by measured reference to the appropriate literature;

· I want to know how the researcher relates to the questions, and specifically to be assured they are seeking to be as objective and balanced as possible, or to explain why they are promoting certain ideas;

· I do expect to have the arguments and any counter arguments explained, and for the researcher to say to what extent they think we should balance these. E.g. ‘X’ is clearly evident in the evidence, or ‘we can be certain /sure/fairly sure about ‘X’. This means as the reader, I can easily grasp the extent to which the researcher attributes certainty to the arguments (and usually expect the evidence to be cited at this point).

· I expect to be treated as an intelligent, but otherwise, non-specialist reader;

I suggest we might see Case Study as having two different aspects to the ‘case’. Firstly, we might interpret case as to mean the ‘instance’ under study. Secondly, we might also see it as the ‘Case’ being made by the researcher … that is the particular explanations that the researcher derives from the analysis of evidence.

I’d be happy to hear your comments on this.