3.2 Research Design
3.2.3 Case Study Research
The research was designed in the form of case studies as this allowed me an insight into the real dynamics of the participants’ world. The unit of analysis is the principals’
understanding and experiences of leadership.
In addition, I regard research that explores personal and individual experiences in education as an important aspect of learning about the needs of those in leadership.
The qualitative research approach has been used by researchers to examine real life situations. At this point I would like to define what constitutes a case study.
Case study, as many authors have pointed out (Merriam, 2001; Yin, 1994; Simons, 2009 and Rule & John, 2011) has different meanings for different people in different disciplines. For example, Rule and John (2011, p.4) define a case study as a
“systematic and in-depth investigation of a particular instance in its context in order to generate knowledge.” I align myself with this definition. I found a case study
approach relevant for this research because it afforded me the opportunity to arrive at a rational conclusion by examining the principals’ understanding and experiences of leadership, to thoroughly understand it from different perspectives. Similar sentiments are expressed by Simons (2009) that a case study is a comprehensive investigation, from various points of view, of the intricacies and distinctiveness of a specific concept, approach, course of study or structure in a real life situation. Lindegger (1999, p.255) believes that case studies are “intensive investigations of particular individuals, usually descriptive in nature and provide rich information about individuals or particular situations.”
From the above definitions of case studies one gathers that there are differences in the terminology describing case studies. However, they all concur that the study of human relations can yield greater understanding and appreciation of the uniqueness of the life being investigated. This is because people are entwined within the context of the phenomenon being researched.
For Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007, p.253) a case study is: “a bounded system which provides a unique example of real people in real situations, enabling readers to understand ideas more clearly than simply by presenting them with abstract theories or principles.” These scholars opine that it is important in case studies for events and situations to be allowed to speak for themselves, rather than to be largely interpreted, evaluated or judged by the researcher (Cohen et al., 2007). It is therefore for this reason that I allowed the data to ‘speak’ to each other with limited interference. This study thus looked at the phenomena of leadership in real life contexts by using in- depth interviews and reflective journal writing to obtain rich data.
Critics of the case study approach claim that case study research is dependent on a single case and is incapable of providing a generalising conclusion (Maree, 2007).
Contrary to this perception, the proponents of this method maintain that this is not the purpose of case study research; rather the aim is to gain deeper knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of a specific situation. Hamel (cited in Maree, 2007) describes this singularity as a focus of the global in the local. This is what I envisaged achieving in this research, as the intention was not to arrive at generalisations but “to
gain the persuasive voices of the respondents as it is studied in its natural setting”
(Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p.3).
Because I selected three cases to explore the principals’ understanding and experiences of leadership, the study could not be considered without the context, namely the school environment. It is within the context of the school where they developed and experienced their leadership and professional skills. Therefore, it would have been impossible to have a true picture of their perception of their leadership roles without considering the context within which it occurred. These case studies were also interpretive in that they served to elicit deep-seated feelings from the principals. In addition, they dealt with an in-depth investigation of the principals’
leadership experiences within their particular working contexts. My investigation allowed the principals to describe through their own experiences how they created spaces for teaching and learning. It also allowed me to gain greater insight into the differing perspectives of their leadership experiences.
Merriam (1998) states that although some researchers focus on the process of the research, some on the unit of analysis, others at the end product, she explains that the case study is defined by the interest in the individual case and not by the methodologies of inquiry. In this study the case was the school principals.
I made use of Merriam’s (1998) characterisations of particularistic, descriptive and heuristic, as a guide. It was particularistic since the focus was on the principals’
understanding and experiences of their leadership roles. Particularistic means that case studies focus on a particular situation, event, program or phenomenon. The case itself is “important for what it might represent” (Merriam, 1998, p.29). It is descriptive because the final report “is a rich, thick description of the phenomenon under study”
(Ibid, 1998, p.24). It is heuristic in that it “illuminates the reader’s understanding of the phenomenon under study which can bring about the discovery of new meaning, extend the reader’s experience, or confirm what is known” (Merriam, 1998, p.30).
In accordance with the above approach, this study aimed to explore how these principals understood and experienced leadership within their specific contexts. The three principals gave a rich description of how they experienced their leadership roles within their particular contexts. These principals are leading schools in communities
with different socio-economic backgrounds, located in different circumstances. This results in different experiences regarding their roles and responsibilities as professional leaders. However, it is worth mentioning that the data collected showed both similarities and differences with regard to their experiences.