Case Analysis
level.
Equity Literacy Approach (Paul Gorski)
 Problem Identification – Identify or name
the situation and relevant related issues.
What is the conflict? What is the source of
the conflict?
 Perspectives – Create a list of every person,
group, and institution impacted by the
incident. How is each of these people and
institutions affected by the situation? Be
sure to include possible victims, victimizers,
members of the community, and anyone
else who is touched by the incident directly
or indirectly.
 Challenges and Opportunities – What are
the individual and institutional challenges
and constraints within which the situation
must be addressed? What are the challenges
based on the individuals directly involved,
and what institutional constraints must
inform an approach for addressing the
situation? What are the educational and
growth opportunities presented by the
incident, both for the people directly
involved and the institution?
 Strategies – Brainstorm approaches for
addressing the situation, attempting to
maximize the extent to which the negative
outcomes of the situation are addressed
while simultaneously maximizing the extent
to which you take advantage of educational
and growth opportunities. Keep in mind the
varied perspectives and the fact that any
solution will affect everyone differently. This
is not the step at which to challenge and
critique each other's ideas. Record every
idea, no matter how unreasonable it may
sound to individuals in the group.
 Solutions – Focus your strategies into a
formal plan of action. Keep in mind the
varied perspectives as well as the challenges
and opportunities. Be sure to come up with
at least two or three specific responses,
whether they focus on the individual conflict
or the underlying issues at an institutional
 Expected Outcomes – Name the outcomes
you foresee as a result of the solutions you
identified. Revisit the perspectives step to
ensure a standard of equity and fairness.
 So, what would you do if you were
Ms.Grady?
 What would you do in the immediate
term?
 Would you adjust your policies to
accommodate Samantha, a gifted
student whose grade is suffering for
reasons beyond her control?
Would doing so threaten your
commitment to expressing high
expectations forall of your students?
 Would you look for new ways to reach
out to her family?
 How would you respond in the longer
term, knowing that other students might
be in similar situations?
 How, if at all, might you adjust the way in
which you give homework or how you
weigh it when you are calculating
grades?
 How would you use what you’ve learned
to become a more equitable educator,
not just for your current students but for
your future students?
The Case Method
 By analyzing real-life scenarios based on
actual events, we can practice applying
theoretical ideas (such as educational
equity) to on-the-ground professional
practice (Darling-Hammond, 2006)
 This allows us to practice stepping through a
process of considering a range of
perspectives and angles; to practice seeing
the full complexity of everyday classroom
situations; and, as a result, to reflect on the
perspectives, angles, and complexities we
 might not see in the chaos of our day-to-day
work lives.
 An “active pedagogical practice,” an
applicative process designed to build our
capacities for evaluating and implementing
mindful responses to complex, and often
inequitable, school and classroom
conditions (Leonard & Cook, 2010)
The Nature of Case Method
 The teaching case is a story, a narrative if you
will, usually based on actual events and told
with a definite teaching purpose. It does not
have a correct answer or obvious solution,
relying instead on the nature of the real
world where answers are difficult to come by
and solutions are always contested.
 We are introduced to the need to think
carefully, to listen to the points made by
others and to evaluate those arguments, to
review alternative courses of action and
their efficacy, and to interpret real-world
experience.
 The point of examining a case, as we see it,
is not to be constrained by boxes—this is
correct, so this must be incorrect but rather
to muddle through the gray areas by
considering all that makes them gray.
 It challenges us to question our own mental
models by examining classroom situations
through a variety of lenses (Gallucci,2006).
 It challenges us to practice asking the
questions we previously might never have
thought to ask; to reconsider old ways of
thinking in light of new understandings.
Dangers of Stereotype
In the end, our understandings of poverty and our
attitudes toward poor families play an enormous
role, and perhaps the most enormous role, in how
we see and treat our low-income students
(Robinson, 2007; Williams, 2009), not to mention
the lengths to which we will or will not go to
advocate for them and their educational rights.
This means that whenever we’re in a situation
where a bad stereotype could be applied to us –such
as those being old, poor, rich, or female –we know
it. We know people fits the stereotype could be
taken as confirming it. And we know that, for that
reason, we could be judges and treated accordingly.
(p.5)