Case Study Research in Education

Researching Phenomena

Case study methodologies are flexible, allowing researchers to study a variety of phenomena ranging from unusual situations to complex interactions. These flexible methodologies are beneficial in that they provide researchers with tools for capturing the different elements that contribute to peculiarities of the phenomenon under investigation. This enables researchers to expose what may have contributed to the phenomenon, and allows policymakers either to incorporate this into new policy or to modify existing policy.

In research using only quantitative survey methods, outlier cases may be disregarded as they may be seen as errors or statistically irrelevant. The case study approach differs in that these outlier situations can be studied in depth, along with the other scenarios, by targeted sampling while still having a study with statistically relevant results. In order to capture all situations, participants are chosen from specified areas. Particularly with education research it is important to study these outlier situations as they are a reality, and proper teaching policy must therefore be developed so that effective and appropriate teaching methods can be practiced. For example, although some disabilities are rare, they do occur, and in order to effectively accommodate children with these disabilities, appropriate teaching policy must be created and implemented. Without the flexibility of the case study approach, which allows for targeted sampling, it would otherwise be difficult to appropriately and effectively capture these phenomenon along with other situations in a holistic way, so that they could be studied and an appropriate policy created.

The case study approach is also flexible in that it allows for the investigation of matters that may not have been included in the researcher's original goals. Unlike quantitative surveys, with this approach researchers are not bound to a defined set of questions, but are able to prompt subjects with further questions in order to obtain more detail. This dynamic quality of the case study approach allows the researcher to expose different patterns after the interviews that may have not been initially apparent, and allows for further research in either a new or a broadened direction. Again, with this new information, policymakers can develop policy by either incorporating the information or creating new policy in order to accommodate what was discovered through the field research.

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