Case Study in Contemporary Educational Research: Conceptualization and Critique/ Etudes de Cas Dans la Recherche Pedagogique Contemporaine: Conceptualisation Et Critique (Case Study‪)‬

INTRODUCTION As one of important research methods, case study research has been used for many years across a variety of disciplines. In education research, case study, labeled as one of the three approaches to the problem of verification and accumulation of educational knowledge, seeks to understand and interpret the world in terms of its actors and may be finally described as interpretative and subjective. (Cohen et al., 2000, p.181) Case study research can bring us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Education researchers, in particular, have made wide use of this qualitative research method to examine contemporary situations in education and provide the basis for the application of ideas and extension of methods. Researcher Robert K. Yin defines the case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin, 1984, p. 23).