[Yin+Merriam] The Definition of Case Study

Yin (2009) looks case study as a research method and gives us the following definitions:

1. A case study is an empirical inquiry that

• investigate a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context, especially when 

• the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (p.18). 

2. The case study inquiry

• cope with the technically distinctive situation in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one result 

• relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion, and as another result 

• benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis. (p.17-18) 

In Yin's points, case study is a specific research methodology that especially can be applied to the situation when we cannot distinguish the variable and its results.

However, Merriam (1988) viewed case study as an "end product." She says:

“A qualitative case study is an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon or social unit”

She also cited Wolcott's view to support her idea: “[Case study is] an end-product of field oriented research” (Wolcott, 1992). Merriam continued to argue that "[c]ase study does not claim any particular methods or data collection or data analysis" (p.28). She focuses on qualitative case studies and thinks they can be o characterized as being particularistic, descriptive, and heuristic.

• Particularistic: focus on a particular situation, event, program, or phenomenon. àespecially good for practical problems. 

• Descriptive: end product of a case study is a rich, “thick description of the phenomenon understudy” 

• Heuristic: illuminate the readers understanding of phenomenon under study. They can bring about the discovery of new meanings, extend the readers’ experience, or confirm what is known. (p.29). 

In some way, Merriam adopted Yin's view that case study is an appropriate design that "particularly suited to situations in which it is impossible to separate the phenomenon’s variables from their context (p.29)." But in some other ways, case study could be conducted by different disciplinary types (e.g., ethnographic, historical, psychological, and sociological) and by its overall intents (e.g., descriptive, interpretive, and evaluative).

If I didn't perceive wrong, based on Yin's definition, the data sources of case study could be both quantitative and qualitative. Hence, case study is especially a suitable form of a mix-methods design. Of course it should be designed under the assumption made from its definition listed above.

[Yin] Single Case or Multiple Case Study? -- Rethinking My Research Design

This semester I begin to dwell myself into the world of case study. Although someone suggested my that the best way to learn how to conduct a case study is "learning by doing," I believe I would be better to gain some basic ideas of how it works, especially now I'm far away from school and need to prepare everything by myself.

I started from two books, Merriam's and Yin's. Merriam was the first book I chose to read. It was a 1998 edition borrowed from one of my friend. I also purchased the 2009 edition, which is a slightly different from the previous version, but currently I sticked into the 1998 edition.

Merriam's book for me is easy to read. I think it is a good book for reviewing basic concepts for qualitative study methodology after I've finished CI8148, the foundation course of Qualitative Study. When I was reading Merriam's book, I felt like I was talking with an old friend. Everything is very familiar to me. This book, basically is a handbook for qualitative study in general, except for a couple sections that specially aim at case study. Yin's book is speaking a foreign language to me. I felt like I can kind of understand his ideas, however, I didn't master these ideas right now. The examples provided by Yin were also a little bit distanced from my comfort zone. I've read two chapters so far and not sure if I will finish the whole book. But I'm interested the data analysis portion written by Yin anyway. Merriam's book, in another side, sometimes is too "natural" for me. She defined the case study as a final product. The data collection and analysis process, in my own opinion, shares mostly the same concepts from other qualitative approaches. So I see these unfamiliarity and the uncomfortableness when I read Yin's book in a good way. It puzzles me but push me to think more.

I kept looking back to my mini proposal when I was reading Yin's book. One of the idea interest me is how Yin distinguishes single-case designs and multiple-case designs. He presents four different designs by following matrix:

[Grachic from Yin (2009) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Fourth Edition. p.46]

"The matrix first shows that every type of design will include the desire to analyze contextual conditions in relation to the 'case,' with the dotted lines between the two signaling that the boundaries between the case and the context are not likely to be sharp. The matrix then shows that single- and multiple-case studies reflect different design situations and that, within these two variant, there also can be unitary or multiple units of analysis. The resulting four types of designs for case studies are (Type 1) single-case (holistic) designs, (Type 2) single-case (embedded) designs, (Type 3) multiple-case (holistic) designs, and (Type 4) multiple-case (embedded) designs" (p.46).

My design seems cannot be categorized into any of these designs above, instead, it looks like the following picture:

In my initial thoughts, to understand how K-12 teachers use iPad in their classrooms, I selected five teachers who teach five different subject matters in the same grade of a same school which begins its iPad initiative. My design is five different cases (teachers) in a single context (school). I'm not sure if it can be categorized as a "multiple-case study." It relates to my research question: do I want to find the similar pattern from these five cases, or find the differences between these five cases? 

Or this cannot be counted as a multiple-case study, instead, it should be a "Single-case embedded design" with multiple units of analysis (Type 2 design described by Yin)? However, if it is this kind of Type 2 design, the case become "the whole iPad initiative" of a school, which seems not match to my research questions.

The question can also be linked to the rationale of why I choose five different teachers with different subject matters in a school. Based on my original thoughts, I thought five different teachers can be "representative" (I am a little afraid to use this word after I take CI8148) and understand the phenomenon in a K-12 school. After I talked to one of my friends who conducted a case study before, I realized the design could be problematic. If I want to understand the "difference" of teachers' iPad use in different content areas, one teacher in a content area seems to be weak because I cannot find the "pattern" in each area and compare these different patterns among different teaching practices in different areas.

If I'm really interested in these differences among content areas and want to put it into the list of my research questions, the design needs to be changed because I don't think I can handle at lease 10 teachers in  five different areas. I came up with a possibility of another design: focus on two different areas, say, language art and science, and study 2-3 teachers in each area, find the patterns and compare. 

Of course this design could be easily changed when I actually begin to find my cases in the future. My ideas could change when I continue to read Yin's book as well. I'm not sure if my understandings are correct right now.