This is a small article published online by British Educational Research Association: http://www.bera.ac.uk/resources/case-studies-educational-research
A few things that I lined out for myself
“…case study approach is often used to build up a rich picture of an entity, using different kinds of data collection…”
“… an alternative form of case study/…/ is the model which is used most frequently by those in education: an instrumental or delimited case study. In this latter form, the focus is usually on an issue, problem or dilemma etc within the case.”
Key choices:
- Issue/problem
- Creating a research aim and questions
- Holistic or instrumental case study approach
- Who are the key individuals who might participate
- Data collection tools – which are most likely to provide you with the kind of data which will help you to answer your research questions?
- ‘Sampling’ careful consideration of choices and key aspects which might have relevance for the project
- Risk assessment: potential problems and how you might deal with them. Possible compromises/back up cases
This little article is a teaser of the upcoming book “Using Case Studies in Education Research”. Hamilton, L., Corbett-Whittier, C., Fowler, Z. London: Sage (coming Nov. 2012)
From the references to be read:
Bassey, M. (1999) Case Study Research in educational settings. Buckingham: Open University Press