Case Study Design: Implementation of a Schoolwide Reading Program
Study Question: How does a school go about implementing a schoolwide reading program at the junior high school level? What role does each employee play, and how do they feel about those roles? What works and doesn’t work during the process?
Study Propositions: None. Exploratory Case.
Unit of Analysis: a suburban junior high school serving grades 7-8
Data Collection: Data collection would consist of examining internal documents regarding the reading program, observation of the reading program in action, and interviews with the employees of the school (including both administration and instructional personnel).
Data Analysis: Documents would be analyzed for content, and field notes/interview transcripts would be analyzed and coded, looking for emerging themes.
Alternative Methods: If I were to conduct this study as, say, a survey, I would be able to gather data from a larger group of people. I could distribute the survey electronically across the U.S. and even internationally, and get a broader view of the issue. However, the data gathered would not be as rich as what I could get from a case study. The case study is more narrow in scope, but would be more in depth, and possibly reveal themes that would not emerge in a survey. Further, using multiple methods in the case study would allow for triangulation of data that a simple survey could not provide. As you know, I plan to use a case study research design for my dissertation. I chose the case study precisely because of it’s flexibility of methods and ability to gather rich data.