Case Study Research, Philosophical Position and Theory Building: A Methodological Discussion

Abstract

Case study research though increasingly popular in social sciences for positivist and intrepretivist research, a kind of confusion is prevalent when it is used ignoring its philosophical position. Arguably, the case study research is considered more appropriate for qualitative research because of its foremost strength ˗ the in-depth study of complex issues. This paper, drawing from the literature, discusses the philosophical position of case study research and argues that qualitative case study research is appropriate for theory building. For theory building, this paper follows the inductive approach guided by qualitative research paradigm and argues that it is not appropriate to assess theory building from the perspective of quantitative research. Very similar to other research methods, it is natural that the case study research has certain challenges; however, most of the challenges and misunderstandings overlap causing difficulty to understand the role of case study research. Hence, this paper aims to contribute to the understandings of the challenges and misunderstandings associated with the theory building from case study research. This paper argues that most of the challenges associated with theory building from case study can be addressed employing appropriate research strategies particularly clear understanding of philosophical stance and selection of appropriate case. The misunderstandings, on the other hand, are arisen due to the differences in the researcher’s perspectives particularly positivistic thinking of them rather than the shortcomings inherent in the qualitative case study research design.

Women and leadership style in school management: Study of gender perspective

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The Application of Instructional Media in Teaching English to Young Learners

“…Qualitative research has various types of designs, the type of qualitative design that is often used is Case study research, ethnography, grounded theory, narrative inquiry, Participation action, and phenomenology (Jameel et al, 2018). researchers used a case study design, case study is in-depth study of a phenomenon related with the specific context using various sources of data (Bhatta, 2018). This research is intended to find out the use of media in teaching English to young learners, started from what kind of instructional media that the teacher used for teaching english for young learner and the problems that faced in the use of instructional media then the solutions or strategies that teachers do to solved problems that arised when used instructional media This study used 2 instruments in the process of collecting data, namely, observation and interview.…”

Toward a Theoretical Understanding of Placemaking

“…To describe and explain the process of placemaking as a concept, a Theory Building through Case Study research approach was undertaken (Bhatta 2018;Eisenhardt 1989;Løkke and Sørensen 2014). This approach enables researchers to contextualize emerging patterns that exist in data related to an area of interest, through an iterative and flexible process.…”

“…This approach enables researchers to contextualize emerging patterns that exist in data related to an area of interest, through an iterative and flexible process. While case study research can be used for both theory development and theory testing, the focus of this study is on the development of placemaking as a theoretical concept, and Theory Building Through Case Study is more recognized in research for its association and contributions to theory building (Berg 2007;Bhatta 2018).…”