A Review of “Doing Case Study Research: A Practical Guide for Beginning Researchers”

I n Doing Case Study Research: A Practical Guide for Beginning Researchers, Hancock and Algozzine provide a concrete, step-by-step process for beginning researchers who are conducting case study research. The authors claim that Doing Case Study Research is not a “case study research for dummies” (p. xii) manual, and I absolutely concur. They are successful in stripping away the theories and attacking case study research in a very rudimentary manner, hence providing readers a prescriptive approach. It is a practical look at doing case study research—a solid companion for those teaching, facilitating, or conducting introductory qualitative research. Doing Case Study Research is divided into three sections: “Foundations” (Chapters 1–2), “Stages of Doing Case Study Research” (Chapters 3–11), and “Putting It All Together” (Chapters 12–13). In the first part, Hancock and Algozzine provide insights into the purposes and processes of research, in general, and offer their readers an overview of basic types of qualitative and quantitative research. The authors fittingly provide the reader with guidance in selecting the appropriate research within the two broad traditions. Comprising 59 of the book’s 114 pages, the second section is truly the “nuts and bolts” of conducting case study research. In this section, the authors outline their prescriptive, step-by-step process, which spans from literature review and research design through data collection and interpretation and then ending with reporting and confirming the findings. Each chapter in this section is thorough, with just enough information as to not overwhelm novice researchers. For example, Chapter 4 (“Determining What We Know”) beautifully illustrates and iterates the rationale for the conceptual framework and outlines a seminal and well-documented process for writing a literature review. For instance, the authors suggest following Galvan’s (1999, 2009) key directions for writing literature reviews by first selecting a topic and identifying the literature to review followed by analyzing, criticizing, synthesizing, and documenting the literature. The final section focuses on preparing proposals and disseminating research. These last two chapters bring the book full circle by providing the reader with steps for the typical outlets of their completed work. This book is an easy, quick read and is very user friendly. Hancock and Algozzine offer a variety of cross-disciplinary examples from published works to support their basic process for doing case study research. For example, in Chapter 3 (“Setting the Stage”) the authors provide the readers with examples of published studies from researchers who utilized case study research through 18 brief descriptions of events, situations, programs, and activities across several disciplines including, but not limited to education, social work, counseling, technology, adult education, criminal justice, and psychology. At the conclusion of each chapter, the authors deliver questions (Content Review) and activities to facilitate understanding (Activities and Applications for Prospective Researchers). I greatly appreciated the attention to research design (Chapter 5: “Selecting a Design”); in many qualitative texts, this seems to be overlooked or lacking specificity within the context of case study research. I have reviewed several manuscripts submitted for publication where “case study research” was indicated as the “design. ” It seems that beginning researchers (and some veterans) fail to realize that, as Hancock and Algozzine indicated, “[d]oing case study research means selecting a design that matches the disciplinary perspective of the investigation” (p. 37). Not only did the authors distinguish between the classifications, types, and orientations of case study research designs, they also provided 12 different examples that clearly illustrated these different designs. Although this is a practical guide for implementing case study research, a few weaknesses should be noted. First, Hancock and Algozzine make it sound easy. They do mention that qualitative research is a time-consuming task in the first section of the book; however, the time factor is not otherwise stressed. Further, the data analysis section just scratches the surface of what needs to be done to effectively interpret mass amounts of data typically gathered over a long period of time. With that said, the authors appropriately emphasize the need to remain focused on the research questions when sifting through the data—something both beginning and seasoned qualitative researchers tend to forget. Finally, a chapter on the uses, pros, and cons of qualitative data management systems versus just mentioning them in passing (Chapter 9: “Summarizing and Interpreting the Information”) may be helpful to novice researchers who may mistakenly believe that the software (e.g., NVivo, NUDIST, Atlis-ti) actually analyze the data with the click of a button. The lack of context and theory in Doing Case Study Research is both purposeful and effective. Hancock and Algozzine fill a gap in the literature with regard to case study research and their book makes a very useful accompaniment to qualitative research courses. It may not teach some old research dogs new tricks, but Doing Case Study Research is definitely a useful resource to pass along to more novice researchers.