Case Study Research and

Ethnography
DR. Rania AlBsoul

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• Announcements

- Midterm Exam : 14th November 2019 (3-4 pm).

Weight: 30%

- Final Exam: 14th December 2019 (12:15-2:15 pm)

Weight: 40%

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DISCUSSION

Paper Title: How does accreditation influence staff perceptions of quality in residential aged care?

RESEARCH STUDY RESEARCH

TOPIC AIM/OBJECTIVES QUESTIONS

Aged care To understand the views of RQ1. What factors have

accreditation experienced residential aged influenced the quality of
care staff on developments in residential aged care?
Australian residential aged
care over the past decade. RQ2. What has been the
role and influence of the
aged care?
 Discussion
•Topics suggestions and examples of qualitative research questions.

•Start thinking of your own topic!

•What is the approach that best fit your research questions?

•What are the data collection methods you need to address the research questions?

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Learning objectives

• After this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Understand the definition of case study.
2. Identify data collection methods in case study research.
3. Describe the steps of performing case study research.
4. Identify the limitations of case study research.
5. Describe the details of ethnographic research.
6. Understand the aim of ethnographic research.

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 Case Study Research (Definition)

• Case study research is a qualitative approach

in which the investigator explores a bounded
system (a case) or multiple bounded systems
(cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth
data collection involving multiple sources of
information (e.g., observations, interviews,
audio-visual material, and documents and
reports), and reports a case description and
case-based themes.

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Background about case study
• Case studies have been long established in healthcare, medicine,
anthropology, and psychology research.

• Case study research is effective to investigate and understand complex

issues in real world settings

• The case usually describes a series of events that reflect the activity or
problem as it happened.

• Case can be individual, group, project, policy, institution, program or an

anomaly.
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Background about case study research (continued)
• The power of case study research is the ability to use multiple sources
and techniques for comprehensive depth and breadth of inquiry.

• Case study research is not exclusively concerned with qualitative

methods.

• Document analysis, archival records, interviews, surveys and participant

observation are considered the main data sources for case study research.

• Triangulation
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Background about case study (continued)

• Statistical versus analytical generalisation.

• The difference between case study and experiment.

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Background about case study (continued)
• Analytic generalisation is distinct from statistical generalisation
- It does not draw inferences from data to a population. Instead, analytic generalisation compares
the results of a case study to a previously developed theory.
- In doing a case study, your goal will be to expand and generalize theories (analytic generalization)
and not to enumerate frequencies (statistical generalization) (Yin, 2010).

- Research might produce analytical generalizability when a new concept or new theory is
constructed that later makes sense and has significance in other research, even if the contexts or
populations are different (Smith, 2018).

- The researcher might re-examine established concepts and theories in a study through a different
methodology and, in turn, produce new conceptual and theoretical understandings of a topic.
When that occurs, and the researcher or other researchers show the value of such concepts or
theories in other research, then again it can be said that the work generates a form of analytical
generalisation (Smith, 2018).
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Types of case study
• Exploratory: aims to explore and determine the purposes of any
subsequent research.

• Descriptive: aims to describe the phenomenon of interest.

• Explanatory: aims to reveal cause–effect associations of the studied

phenomena.

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How to perform a case study?
• Determine and define the research questions.

• Select the cases and determine data-gathering and analysis techniques.

• Prepare to collect data.

• Collect data in the field.

• Evaluate and analyse the data.

• Prepare the report

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Step 1: Determine and Define the Research
Questions
• The focus or intent is established once an intensive review of the
relevant literature has been completed and the problem has been
well identified.

• The importance of framing your research direction in the form of

questions is that you are then driven to consider your methods:
a. How would I answer those questions?
b. What information do I need?
c. how would I go about getting it?
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Step 1: Determine and Define the Research
Questions (continued)
• Good research questions are those which will enable you to achieve
your aim and which are capable of being answered in the research
setting.

• Broad aims often remain the same. What changes and evolves is the
set of research questions.

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 Example on the evolving of research questions
• Research questions might be:
- What proportion of patients don't comply with medical advice on drugs?
- Are there differences (i.e. age, social class) between different categories of patient?
- Is age a factor?
- Is the medical condition a factor?
• As you get into the research, as you get to talk to patients, doctors and practice
nurses, other questions might emerge:
- how clearly are patients told about drug use and the need for compliance?
- Would follow-up improve compliance?
- Are patients taking the drugs but not complying with other aspects of medical advice
(diet, exercise)?

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 Step 2: Select the Cases and Determine
Data-Gathering and Analysis Techniques
• Case can be called as Unit of Analysis.

• The researcher must select single or multiple cases that reflect the research questions in Step 1.

• This step also involves selecting the instruments and other data-gathering strategies that will be used.

• The study must be well constructed to ensure:

a. Construct validity.
b. Internal validity.
c. External validity.
d. Reliability.

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Step 2: Select the Cases and Determine
Data-Gathering and Analysis Techniques (continued)
• Construct validity requires the researcher to select the correct tool or
method for the concepts being studied.

• Internal validity demonstrates that the conditions being observed will is

discovered by triangulating various pieces of evidence.

• External validity determines if the findings can be generalized beyond the

one or multiple cases being studied.

• Reliability refers to how well the procedures are documented to ensure that
the research can be replicated
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Step 3: Prepare to collect the data
• Preparation for the vast amounts of data prior to collection will save
the researcher much time and frustration later.

• Due to the nature of case study research, the researcher will generate
large amounts of data from multiple sources. Time taken to plan prior
to the research will allow one to organize multiple databases and set
categories for sorting and managing the data.

• The importance of piloting.

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Step 4: Collect data in the field
• Data collection is emergent.

• The importance of field notes.

• Time to end data collection (time and budgetary limitations).

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Step 4: Collect data in the field (continued)
• Criteria for determining when it is appropriate to end data collection:
a. Exhaustion of sources: Data sources (e.g., key informants, document analysis)
can be recycled and tapped many times, but at some point, it should become
clear that little more information or relevance will be gained from further
engagement with them.
b. Saturation of categories: Eventually, the categories used to code data appear to
be definitively established. When continuing data collection produces only tiny
increments of new information about categories in comparison to the effort
expended to get them, the researcher can feel confident about ending data
collection.
c. Overextension: Even if new information is still coming in, the researcher might
develop a sense that the new information is far removed from the central core
of viable categories that have emerged and does not contribute usefully to the
emergence of additional viable categories
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 Step 5: Evaluate and Analyse the data
• Triangulation.

• Structural versus reflective analysis.

- Researcher’s own reflections.

• When multiple cases are chosen, a typical format is to first provide a detailed
description of each case and themes within the case, called a within-case analysis
followed by a thematic analysis across the cases, called a cross-case analysis.

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Step 6: Prepare the report

• Reflective reporting versus analytic reporting.

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Limitations of case study
• The large quantity of data, combined with the limited timeframe available for
some researches may impact on the depth of analysis of the data within the
available time and resources.

• Deciding the "boundaries“ of a case-how it might be constrained in terms of time,

events, and processes-may be challenging.

• Large quantity of data may veer away from the research focus.

• Providing little basis for generalisation (please see slide 10).

- Use large number of cases
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Further reading (Case study paper)
• A multiple-case study in nurse practitioner-led clinics: an exploration
of the quality of care for patients with multimorbidity ( please read
the methods section).

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Ethnography
• Ethno: people or folk; Graphy: describe something.

• Ethnography: describing and understanding another way of life from

the native point of view.

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Ethnography ( Please watch the video)

https://youtu.be/6lIzz3DlEWQ

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Ethnography (Definition)
• Ethnography is the study of social interactions, behaviours, and perceptions
that occur within groups, teams, organisations, and communities.

• The central aim of ethnography is to provide rich, holistic insights into

people’s views and actions, as well as the nature of the location they inhabit,
through the collection of detailed observations and interviews.

• Typically, the studied group in ethnography is one that has been together for
an extended period of time, so that their shared language, patterns of
behaviour, and attitudes have merged into a discernible pattern.

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Ethnography ( continued)
• Through the collection of observations, interviews and documentary
data, which are triangulated (i.e. compared and contrasted with one
another).
• Through its use of in situ observations ethnographers can ‘immerse’
themselves in a social setting, thereby generating a rich understanding
of social action.
• Participant observation also provides ethnographers an opportunity to
gather empirical insights into social practices which are normally
‘hidden’ from the public gaze.
• Ethnographer not only observes a social group, setting or subject
matter, but engages in the participation actively with a general
commitment to observing everyday social life.
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Ethnography ( continued)
• Ethnographic research is exploratory in nature. This approach means that the
ethnographer goes into the field to explore a cultural group and/or explore
certain social interactions.

• Due to the complexity of ethnography, unlike many other forms of qualitative

research, ethnographic research is more difficult to undertake.

• The unpredictability of everyday life often means that data collection activities
can be disrupted or access withdrawn depending on ever-changing local
circumstances and politics.
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Steps of Ethnographic research
1. Planning

2. Sampling

3. Data collection

4. Data analysis

5. Write up
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Step 1: Planning
• Access and ethics

- Attaining approval from the appropriate decision makers for access to

a research setting is an essential first step in planning an ethnography.

- Attaining access may be challenging. For example, some people are

often reluctant at the thought of being ‘scrutinised’ by researchers.

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Step 1: Planning (continued)
• Establish rapport.

• Gatekeepers.

• Ethical approvals

• Ethical issues:
- Avoidance of harm.
- Informed consent.
- Privacy and confidentiality.
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Step 2: Sampling
• Sampling of the research setting is an important component of data
collection.

• Often, a single study site is selected, but multiple individuals, actions

and activities embedded within this setting are selected to develop an
insightful account of daily life.

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Step 3: Data collection
• Gather information where the group works and lives (Fieldwork).

• Gathering the types of information typically needed in an

ethnography involves going to the research site, respecting the daily
lives of individuals at the site, and collecting a wide variety of
materials.

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Step 3: Data collection (continued)
• Participant observation
- A field strategy that simultaneously combines document analysis, interviewing of
respondents and informants, direct participation and observation, and introspection
(reflection).
- Ethnographic fieldwork typically involves the development of close connections
between the fieldworker and subjects and situations being studied

- However, the ethnographer carries a sense of objectivity towards participant

observation whereby one can separate oneself from the group being studied.

- Other components of participant observation include the use of additional

qualitative and quantitative methods.
- Several methods are commonly used as a component of participant observation and
include in-depth interviews, life histories and document analysis. 35
Step 3: Data collection (continued)
• In-depth interviews
- In-depth interviews are also referred to as focused, unstructured or
ethnographic interviews.
- This method of interviewing does not use fixed questions, but aims to engage
the interviewee in conversation to elicit their understandings and
interpretations.
- These interviews are characterised by active involvement in engaging the
participant to converse about a particular topic or discussion relevant to the
research questions or topic being explored.

- Interviews are complimentary to participant observation.

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Step 3: Data collection (continued)
• Triangulation: An analytical technique that incorporates and compares
multiple methods with the intent of providing a more in-depth and
holistic understanding of a phenomenon.

• Types of Triangulation:
- Data triangulation
- Methods triangulation.
- Investigator triangulation.
- Theory triangulation.
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Step 4: Data Analysis
• Three aspects:
1. Description: recounting and describing of data.

2. Analysis: process of examining relationships, factors and linkages

across the data points.

3. Interpretation: builds an understanding or explanation of the data

beyond the data points and analysis.

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Step 5: write up

• The writing of ethnography is often described as a dualistic process of

separating oneself (the ethnographer) from the other (the research
participants) or a dialogue between the self and the other.

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Advantages
• “ Real- world data”

• Provides in-depth understanding of people in an organisation.

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 Challenges

• The time to collect data is extensive, involving prolonged time in the field.

• There is a possibility that the researcher will "go native" and be unable to
complete the study or be compromised in the study.

• Data is too messy and unstructured.

• Complex array of fieldwork issues facing ethnographers who venture into an

unfamiliar cultural group or system.

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Reading Material
• Power point presentation

• Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five

approaches, page 68-76

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References
• Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design:
Choosing among five approaches: Sage publications.

• Smith, B. (2018). Generalizability in qualitative research: Misunderstandings,

opportunities and recommendations for the sport and exercise sciences.
Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 10(1), 137-149.

• Yin, R. (2010). Analytic generalization. Encyclopedia of case study research,

1, 20-22.

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Thank you !

Comments

Questions

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