There is no distinctive definition of a case study and thus, different researchers presented different definitions of a case study. For instance, Bassey 1999 notes that an educational case study is:
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an empirical enquiry which is conducted within a localised boundary of space and time; into interesting aspects of an educational activity, or programme, or institution, or system; mainly in its natural context and within an ethic of respect for persons; in order to inform the judgements and decisions of practitioners or policy makers; or of theoreticians who are working to these ends; in such a way that sufficient data are collected (Bassey, 1999, p. 58).
The above definition identifies some specific features of a case study such as a “case of singularity, a precise or unique phenomenon in the real world” (Simons, 2009, p. 3), usually locations and interacts within a specific area (Yin, 2009), its depth of investigation and richness of data (Stake, 1995), and its use of multiple sources of data, methods of data collection and analysis (Cohen et al., 2011; Simons, 2009). Data might take qualitative or quantitative forms, or comprise a combination of both, but case studies traditionally tend towards the qualitative (Creswell, 2013). In other words, there is no single definition of a case study in educational research. Nevertheless these conceptual features have been accepted to create harmony among scholars (Rule, Davey, & Balfour, 2011).
Bassey asserts that case studies have the potential to identify the world’s truth in a specific setting thus generating some kind of accuracy which she refers as “fuzzy generalisation”. This specificity and particularity of case study calls it a paradox (Simons, 2009). This means when a researcher concentrates deeply on one instance, a case study can produce insights about the world. However, its emphasis on uniqueness and individuality often leads to findings which cannot be generalised and sometimes are questionable (Rule & John, 2015).
I believe the main purpose of a case study is to generate deep insights about specific phenomena. However, such phenomena are also experienced in different contexts and thus a range of case studies can explore the same phenomenon. For example, this study is a case study which explores teacher learning from the ACT programme (a specific activity), but other researchers can examine the same issue elsewhere.
4.3.1 In what way is this study a case study?
This study is one of a singularity, which is teacher learning from the ACT programme in the natural context, with a practice-based focus (Adler & Reed, 2002). This study is a theory- seeking case study (Bassey, 1999) which is similar to what (Yin, 2009) refers to as an exploratory case study, as opposed to an intrinsic case study (Stake, 1995). In exploratory case
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studies, the phenomena are first identified, then specific cases experiencing the phenomena are identified and examined. In that view, this particular study can be described as follows:
The Advanced Certificate in Teaching (ACT) programme which replaced the Advanced Certificate of Education (ACE) programme in 2013 at UKZN is a formal professional learning programme for the FP teachers. The part-time programme has been designed for practicing FP teachers and any other teacher who wishes to join the profession at this phase (a specific phase of schooling) and is the broad case under study. The programme aims to contribute to the policy and practice in the wider field of teacher professional development (TPD) in South Africa.
Three FP teachers were purposively selected from a larger group (172 teachers) who enrolled in 2014 for the two-year ACT programme (which had a specified time and programme). This relates to Bassey’s definition of a case study. Teachers constitute the specific cases or the analytical cases of this study.
The case (or subject) is teacher learning of three specific FP teachers (specific cases), confined by category (teaching English as a FAL), practice-based focus (Grade 2) in three particular schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. This is an empirical study, based on data collection over a specified period of time. The research was carried out in the classroom and with classroom teachers. The objective was to acquire information about the teachers’ classroom practices, in order to explore the relationship between their pedagogies and learning from the ACT programme (Adler
& Reed, 2002). The units of analysis included the textual analysis of Module 4, the teachers’ views and beliefs about teacher learning and teaching FAL, as well as specific FAL lessons, thereby’ building a case (Rule & John, 2015).
In this study, a large amount of data were generated, which enabled an in-depth, intensive inquiry, which reflects the rich reality of each case. The research focused on the teachers – what they said, believed and did and why they took certain actions.
Document analysis of Module 4 is detailed in Chapter Five, while the classroom practices which were observed are described in Chapters Six and Seven.
4.3.2 Why a case study design for this research?
According to Cohen et al. (2011), a case study design is able to observe features of an individual, phenomena or group in a specific context, through the investigation of relationships,
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occurrences and trends, in order to attain authentic findings from a social perceptive. This supports Bassey (1999, p. 44) statement, that “researcher’s interpretations in a case study cannot be separated from the participant’s background, history, context and prior understanding”. In this case, the research design enabled an explicit investigation of teacher learning complexities and generated diverse sets of data. Subsequently, clear insights on the uniqueness of teacher learning among the three selected participants were also realised.
“Case studies allow new ideas and hypotheses to emerge from careful and detailed observation, which becomes the foundation of many notable theories in education and social sciences research’’ (Blanche et al., 2014, p. 461). Similarly, case study findings may promote critical reflection on the existing teacher development theories, or a desire among education researchers to explore the same phenomena in multiple case studies in other contexts (Rule et al., 2011). For me as a novice researcher, the design provided an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the factors and complexities of practicing teachers’ learning from a formal professional programme in the South African context. The findings of these specific cases (the three teachers) can be used as a guide or focal point for other small scale studies, or even longitudinal or large scale studies in other contexts.
A case study design allows the researcher to choose a small sample of participants and to employ various sources of data collection using the qualitative mode of enquiry (Adler &
Reed, 2002). This approach generates descriptive and rich longitudinal data about individuals or particular situations (Blanche et al., 2014). For this case, the multiple sources of data enabled my interpretations and were appropriate for the three teachers’ own views about teacher learning and its impact on their classroom practices.
Despites the appropriateness of using the case study design, the issue of validity has created huge debates among education researchers. Causal links are difficult to test and generalisation of the findings cannot be made from case studies (Yin, 2009). “Indeed, the premises of naturalistic studies includes the uniqueness and idiosyncrasy of situations, such that the study cannot be replicated [but] that is however the strength rather than their weakness” (Cohen et al., 2011, p. 202). In the same vein, Rule and John (2011) and Yin (2009) appreciate the analytic generalisation of case studies, which is similar to ‘fuzzy generalisation’ (Bassey, 1999). Case studies are able to use multiple data collection methods which generate ‘thick’ descriptions of
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real situations which can be re-analysed by other researchers using the original data in similar contexts. Recent qualitative design writers agree that the case study design has the ability to generate propositions that can be tested by other research methods (Bertram & Christiansen, 2014; Blanche et al., 2014; Rule et al., 2011; Rule & John, 2015). However, some qualitative researchers feel that the reliability of case study findings cannot be generalised due to the small samples, peculiar nature of the subjects and diverse interpretations of the findings (Cohen et al., 2011).
4.3.3 Why the qualitative approach for a case study?
According to Cohen et al. (2011), the qualitative research approaches are appropriate for a case study for the following reasons:
Naturalistic location: The qualitative researcher collects data ‘in situ’. The researcher observes the participants carrying on with their daily duties and talking in a real world setting. Simultaneously, the researcher can ask them questions in order to understand
‘why’ they do what they are doing. In relation to this study, face-to-face interactions with each of the participating teachers in their working context (classrooms), during the three phases of data collection and sometimes at their contact centres (when applicable), took place.
The researcher as the key instrument: The qualitative researcher has to spend valuable time personally interacting with the people who hold the data, either by examining documents, observing behaviour, or interviewing participants. They may use protocols and instruments for collecting data, but the researcher should actually gather the information. For this study, classroom observations and video recording of some of the FAL lessons were carried out, biographic interviews and video stimulated interviews with each teacher were also conducted. Informal conversations with the teachers, for clarity purposes and verification, were of great significance. To have a clear understanding of the intended literacy curriculum of the ACT programme, one of the Learning Guides (LG4) was also analysed and used as a backdrop of the empirical data analysis about the teachers’ classroom practices.
Multiple sources of data: Qualitative researchers typically gather multiple forms of data, rather than relying on a single source. In this case, various methods of collecting data were employed to gather rich in-depth information about English literacy teacher knowledge and pedagogical practices. Data were collected in three phases. Two
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classroom observations during phase 1, four video recorded lessons in phase 2 and 3, four semi-structured interviews, document analysis, field notes and/or informal conversations (per teacher) were collected. The extensive data were reviewed, transcribed and a cross-case analysis conducted before proceeding to the next data collection phase.
Participants’ meaning: In the entire qualitative research process, my position was to focus on understanding the meaning that the three teachers held about teacher learning and their classroom practices. The meanings or views from the literature was cautiously applied and did not influence the teachers’ views or my own, in this study.
In summary, the design of this study is a case study grounded in the qualitative approach, with an element of longitudinal research seeking to understand teacher learning of the three FP teachers in a real life situation and to provide rich and holistic descriptions of the phenomena within an interpretivist framework.