Case study methodology

Hashimoto, Pillay, and Hudson, (2010) “An Evaluation Framework for Sustaining the Impact of Educational Development.”

p.103 This study adopted a case-study methodology as it can be separated out for research in terms of time, place, or some physical boundaries (Creswell, 2008). Separating the case was critical as there are ongoing education reform projects happening in Egypt. The procedure was guided by Yin’s (2003) model with the sequenced five steps. These steps were: (i) developing research questions; (ii) identifying the research assumptions; (iii) specify- ing research unit(s) of analysis; (iv) the logical linking of data to the assumptions; and (v) determining the criteria and interpreting the findings. The case study is convenient to illuminate the contextually-embedded evaluation process using multiple data sources. This study used three data sources to triangulate the data. They were: (i) the JICA evaluation reports on the project, (ii) a survey questionnaire, and (iii) interviews with stakeholders. To unravel the two main research questions, the following three sub-research questions were applied to these three data sources: (1) Who should be involved in the evaluation process? (2) When should the evaluation be conducted? (3) Why should the evaluation be conducted? These three questions provides a holistic understand- ing of the key players involved in making decisions, the rationale for the timing of the evaluation activities (investigates the assumption underpinning such timing) and, the justification of the evaluation actions. Such a holistic approach is consistent with Burns (2000) argument that case studies should consider constructs from multiple perspectives in order to develop a deeper and more complete understanding of the constructs.