Thursday, April 19, 2018

Case Study Research Topic 5

Response 5-1

After the formal mentoring concludes, I will collect the fieldnotes from the students. These, along with my journal, will be analyzed using grounded theory. Grounded theory is an inductive method looks at generating theory based on existing data (Glaser& Strauss, 1967). That is, rooted or “grounded” in the data rather than a theory that is preconceived. In qualitative data analysis, there are three levels of coding in grounded theory. The first is open, meaning breaking the data into pieces. The second is axial, or putting the data back together into defined categories, and the last is selective, or integrating the key categories to inform the theory. I will review the notes using open ethnographic coding. I will then review them using focused coding. Codes and then emerging themes will emerge. That is, the notes and journal will be read, re-read, creation of initial codes, identifying themes and organizing codes, and lastly to create a thematic map.

Glaser, E.G., and Strauss, A.L., (1967), The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Weidenfeld and Nicplson, London, England.



Response 5-2

Pattern matching is when one compares two patterns in order to determine if they are the same or if they differ (Yin, 2014). This is the main procedure of theory-testing with cases in a case study. Testing matches an observed pattern with what we would expect and seeing if they align, or match, with each other. As I review the fieldnotes in particular, I will see if the students' perspectives "match" my hypothesis that mentoring will increase the levels of self-efficacy and have a positive impact on college-going attitudes.

Yin, R. K. (2017). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Response 5-3

Explanation building will be used to answer my research question using the information gained from the feildnotes, survey, and journal entries. I aim to give an adequate, and accurate explanation of how mentoring impacts self-efficacy. There is an assumption that it does impact it, but it is not known how. I will first challenge the assumption using the notes to determine that there is a difference, and from there explain how and why.

No comments:

Post a Comment