I am reading an older edition of Yin ("Case study research design and methods, 2nd ed.", Sage) and Stake's "The art of case study research" (1995; Sage) for the research proposal for my qualitative research design class.
There are similarities and differences in the approaches. I hope to eventually get a newer edition of the Yin book (5th just came out so there are used copies of the 4th around) to see if there are substantive changes. The forward to the edition of Yin I have was written by the late Donald T. Campbell, although it dates from Campbell's more 'qualitative friendly' period (see my prior post about Campbell from earlier this year). Based on this edition, Yin's approach to design is a little more of a theory testing/hypothetico-deductive approach than Stake whereas Stake seems to be a little more flexible in the design but prescribes a fairly specific analysis method (for multiple case studies at least, in his 2006 book) that seems to place a good deal of emphasis on use of frequency to identify (and even order) salient findings. But, I like how Stake (1995) described qualitative researchers as: "existential (nondeterminist) and constructivist" (p. 43). I had not seen existential set up in contrast with determinism before although I have minimal exposure to the literature on either. On subjectivity, Stake noted: "Often, the researcher's aim is not veridical representation so much as stimulation of further reflection, optimizing readers' opportunity to learn" (p. 42). This makes me think again about Eco's model reader. Who is is that qualitative researchers are writing for? (Who is any researcher writing for?) People usually use purpose statements in reports of research but those can tend to be generic (it is probably sometimes the case that purpose statement was written for the editor or some anonymous reviewer and not the researcher's idea of the actual model reader of the work.) Or, is the editor/reviewer the model reader that most academic authors have in mind? If I think of a paper as a discussion, who do I imagine myself speaking with? Another nice thing from this same section of Stake (1995) is his quotation of Erickson that suggests that qualitative research may result in assertions rather than findings. This obviously influenced Stake because in his later book on multiple case studies, he uses the term assertions in the context of analysis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
Categories
|