NARRATIVE RESEARCH

&

CASE STUDY

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

METHODS

1994 summer qualitative seminar in Vail, Colorado

• Discussion about qualitative data analysis.

• Creswell - introducing one of his recent qualitative

studies-a case study of a campus response to a

student gun incident. (Asmussen & Creswell, 1995).

• “Standing before the group, I chronicled the events of

the case, the themes, and the lessons we learned

about a university reaction to a near tragic event.”

JOHN W

CRESWELL

AUDIENCE RESPONSES• Then, unplanned, Harry Wolcott of the University of Oregon, He explained

how he would approach the study as a cultural anthropologist. And he

"turned" the case study into ethnography, framing the study in an entirely

new way.

• Les Goodchild, then of Denver University, spoke, and he turned the

gunman case into a historical study.

• This made Creswell think that…..

“that one designed a study differently depending on the method of

qualitative research”

REMEMBER……

• Each approach to qualitative research is not mutually exclusive.

They can be used in combinations.

• For example, a case study approach can also incorporate

grounded theory.

Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches

• GROUNDED THEORY

• ETHNOGRAPHY

• PHENOMENOLOGY

• NARRATIVE RESEARCH

• CASE STUDY

Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.).

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

THE POWER OF

A STORY

NARRATIVE RESEARCH

NARRATIVE RESEARCH

• A mode of inquiry in qualitative research, with a

specific focus on the stories told by individuals.

• It explores what the story means and the lessons to be

learned.

DEFINITION

"narrative is understood as a spoken or written text giving an account of

an event/action or series of events/actions, chronologically connected"

(Czarniawska, 2004)

HISTORY

Narrative inquiry was first used by

Connelly and Clandinin as a methodology

to describe the personal stories of

teachers.

The focus is on…..• Studying a single person

• Gathering data through the collection of stories

• Reporting individual experiences

• Discussing the meaning of those experiences for the individual.

Who writes or records the story?

Biography vs. Autobiography

What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?

Individual experiences

Collecting individual stories

Chronology of the experiences

Restorying

Coding for themes Context or setting

Collaborating with participants

Steps in conducting narrative research

Identify a phenomenon

1

Purposefully select an individual

from whom you can learn

about the phenomenon

2

Collect the story from

that individual

3

Restory or retell the

individual’s story

4

Collaborate with the

participantstoryteller

5

Write a story about the

participant’s experiences

6

Validate the

accuracy of the report

7

Collect the story from that individual>

• Have the individual tell about his or her experiences through

personal conversations or interviews.

• Have the individual record his or her story in a journal or diary.

• Observe the individual and record field notes.

• Collect letters sent by the individual.

• Assemble stories about the individual from family members.

• Obtain photographs, and other personal/family/social artifacts.

Several ways to collect stories (field texts) from individuals:

Restory or retell the individual’s story>

Chronological sequenceLogical connections among ideas ? Analyzing it for key elements

Rewriting the story

Restory or retell the individual’s story>

• Narrative researchers differ about the elements to select in the raw data before

chronologically sequencing them.

• Two approaches regarding these elements are

problem solution and three-dimensional space approaches.

PROBLEM SOLUTİON APPROACH> >

Characters Setting Problem Actions Resolution

Individual’s

archetype,

personality,

behaviors, style,

and patterns

Context,

environment,

conditions, place,

time, locale, year

and era

Question to be

answered or

phenomena to

be described or

explained

Movements

through the story

illustrating

character’s

thinking, feelings,

intentions,

actions, and

reactions about

failed and

successful

attempts

Answers the

question and

explains what

caused the

turning point or

the character to

change

THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE APPROACH> >

Interaction Continuity Situation

Personal Social Past Present Future Place

Look inward

to internal

conditions,

feelings,

hopes,

aesthetic

reactions,

moral

dispositions

Look outward

to existential

conditions in

the

environment

with other

people and

their

intentions,

purposes,

assumptions,

and points of

view

Look

backward to

remembered

stories and

experiences

from earlier

times

Look at

current

stories and

experiences

relating to

actions of an

event.

Look forward

to implied and

possible

experiences

and plot lines

Look at context,

time and place

situated in a

physical landscape

or in a setting

bounded by

characters’

intentions, purposes

and different points

of view.

> >

Coding for themes

The researcher can segment stories into themes or categories.

Collaborate with the participant–storyteller>

This collaboration might involve

• Negotiating on how to enter to the research site

• Working closely with the participant to get field texts

• Writing and telling the individual’s story in the researcher’s words.

Collaboration between the researcher and the participant decreases the potential

gap between the narrative told and the narrative reported.

Write a story about the participant’s experiences5>

• Restory has a central place in the narrative report.

• Specific themes that derived from the story should be emphasized.

• It is not necessary to write a specific literature section. The literature

about the problem might be added to the final sections of the study.

Write a story about the participant’s experiences

>

• The setting in which the individual experiences the centralphenomenon should be described in detail.

• A section about the importance of narrative research andthe procedures involved in it can be written.

• The researcher can use the first-person pronoun to referto yourself.

What are some ethical issues in gathering stories?

• Distorting data

• Inability to tell the story because it is horrific

• Forgetting story

AN EXAMPLE….

Overview of the study

• The story of Vonnie Lee, a 29-year-old mentally ill man whom the author met at

Opportunity House

• Vonnie Lee talks openly about his life but his descriptions of his life centered on a

bus route.

• The author took a bus trip with Vonnie Lee to his work place.

“The bus held special meaning for Lee

and on the bus he supplied the researcher with

details about the people, places, and events of

the journey.”

Researcher conclusions

• The bus gave meaning to Vonnie Lee’s life through escape and empowerment

• This meaning explained why he told his life stories in the form of bus routes

• Vonnie Lee’s stable self-image, the bus trip, helped him survive the problems in

his life

• The researcher reflected on the use of metaphor as a framework for analyzing

stories of participants in life history projects at the end of the study

CASE STUDY RESEARCH

CASE STUDY

“Case study research involves the study of an issue explored through one or more cases within a

bounded system (i.e., a setting, a context)”

BOUNDED SYSTEM

Edge of the case

Heart of the study

The "case" selected for study has boundaries, often

bounded by time and place. It also has interrelated parts that form a

whole. Hence, the proper case to be studied is both "bounded" and a

"system

CASE STUDY IS INTERDISCIPLINARY

• The case study approach is familiar to social scientists because

of its popularity in psychology (Freud), medicine (case analysis

of a problem), law (case law), and political science (case

reports).

• Case study research has a long, distinguished history across

many disciplines.

TYPES OF CASE STUDIES

• Single instrumental case study - The researcher focuses on a

single issue then selects a single case to illustrate the issue.

• Collective or multiple instrumental case study – The

researcher focuses on one issue but selects multiple cases to

illustrate the issue that can be purposefully sampled from one site

or several sites

One more….

• Intrinsic case study – This approach focuses on the case itself

because the case presents an unusual or unique situation (e.g.,

evaluating a program or one particular student who is having

difficulty studying)

CONFUSION- Is it a inquiry or methodology??

• Stake - states that case study research is not a methodology

but a choice of what is to be studied (i.e. a case within a

bounded system)

• Others present it as a strategy of inquiry, a methodology, or a

comprehensive research strategy

(Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2003)

Case Study Research Procedures

• Determine if a case study is appropriate for the research problem

• Identify the case or cases to be studied

• What kind of case study is most appropriate

• What case or cases will be studied

• Select cases that show different perspectives through maximal variation

sampling

DATA COLLECTION

• Engage in multiple forms of data collection including interviews,

observations, documents, audiovisual materials, participant-

observations to develop an in-depth understanding of the

case(s)

THEMES AND ANALYSIS

• Develop a detailed description of the case(s) and common themes

in the cases

• When using multiple cases describe each case and themes first (within-case

analysis)

• Compare cases to look for common themes (cross-case analysis)

• Look for common assertions and meanings within the case

• Report the lessons learned from the case regarding the issue of

the case (instrumental) or learning about an unusual situation

(intrinsic case)

Case Study Challenges

• Identifying cases to study

• Identifying whether a single case or multiple cases are needed

• Selecting an appropriate purposeful sampling strategy

• Having access to multiple sources of data

• Deciding how the boundaries of a case might be constrained by

time, events, or processes

CASE

Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi, the story's leading character, is an

eight-year-old boy who dislikes school and fails every test or exam.

He finds all subjects difficult, and is belittled by his teachers and

classmates.

INVESTIGATOR CONDUCTING A CASE STUDY

• Prof Nikumb speaks to Ishant’s Parents, brother, friends and other professors.

• He discovers that he is finding it difficult to read and write.

• Thus he comes to a conclusion that he might be suffering from Dyslexia.

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

• Creswell, J.W. (2007) Qualitative inquiry and research design : choosing among five approaches. Thousand

Oaks : Sage Publications, 2007.

• Ollerenshaw, J. A., & Creswell, J. W. (2002). Narrative research: a comparison of two restorying data

analysis approaches. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(3), 329-347.

• Webster, L., & Mertowa, P. (2007).Using narrative inquiry as a research method: an introduction to using

critical event narrative analysis research on learning and teaching. Oxon: Routledge.

• Stake, R.E. (1995) The art of case study research, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; London: Sage.

• Yin, R.K. (2009) Case study research : design and methods, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Sage Publications.

“Principles are powerful but cases are memorable”.