The Art of Case-Studying in Leadership

¡Hola! In today's entry I'll refer to the importance of case studies as means of research in the field of leadership, by offering first a definition, an example from the literature, and my own example as developed for the course EDDE-804 in March, 2019.

For Stake (1995), "the case is a specific, a complex, functioning thing [... If w]e have an intrinsic interest in the case,[...] we may call our work intrinsic case study [but if a case study] is instrumental to accomplishing something other than understanding this particular [case, this is an] instrumental case study" (pp.2-3).

Thus, if we look for case studies about leadership in blended learning, a great example is an article by Garrison and Vaughan (2013): "Institutional Change and Leadership Associated with Blended Learning Innovation: Two Case Studies".  It can be accessed here, and this is the abstract:

This article documents the institutional change and leadership associated with blended learning innovation in higher education. Two case studies are provided that demonstrate how transformational institutional change related to blended teaching and learning approaches is predicated upon committed collaborative leadership that engages all levels of the institution.

In order to share with you only the gist, theser are the authors' conclusions:

Blended learning (re)design initiatives have enormous potential to address a number of teaching and learning challenges facing higher educational institutions. There is a growing recognition that institutions need to engage students in more active, inquiry based educational experiences. This is becoming more evident as undergraduate class sizes increase along with student dissatisfaction with their learning experiences. In the final analysis, transformational institutional change related to blended teaching and learning approaches is predicated upon committed collaborative leadership that engages all levels of the institution. It has been noted that innovative institutions are driven by thoughtfulness and creativity to realize potential (Collis, 2001). That is, leaders collaboratively create strategic direction and have the courage and commitment to implement and sustain specific action plans. Blended learning innovation demands nothing less.

This article inspired a joint educational intervention plan in a junior high school in order to create a culture of collaborative leadership by means of nurturing a community of inquiry in the institution, as part of a course assignment as mentioned above.  A powerpoint presentation summarizing the case study and educational intervention designed can be found here.

The theoretical bases that were considered to model this intervention are,

● Leadership in context (Cleveland-Innes & Sangrà, 2010)
○ Community of Inquiry as a leadership model
○ Inquiry Through Blended Learning (ITBL) 

To illustrate, I would like to post here the conclusions to our case study project:

● [This case study] is reflective of something much larger and typical of what can happen in many organizations

● This micro-example shows that there can be a disconnect with leadership
expectations and results

● All stakeholders have an awareness of what leadership is and all have expectations

● Without clear leadership, issues that arise are not handled efficiently

● Creating an environment where all understand their own strengths, roles of all stakeholders and how strengths can enhance their own roles

In brief, case study as a research methodology (Dziuban et al, 2016) can provide researchers with valuable information in order to understand the leadership context, the leadership theory to be implemented, how to achieve it, and the benefits that can be reaped for all stakeholders in an educational institution.  As research resources, case studies are practical, focused, and useful tools for improvement and implementation of leadership theory.



References:

    

Diaz-Ducca, J. A., & Poirier, L. (2019). Collaborative Leadership in Special Education. Presented at the Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/38651582/Collaborative_Leadership_in_Special_Education

Dziuban, C. D., Picciano, A. G., Graham, C. R., & Moskal, P. D. (2016). Conducting Research in Online and Blended Learning Environments. New York: Routledge.

Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. D. (2013). Institutional change and leadership associated with blended learning innovation: Two case studies. Internet and Higher Education, 18, 24–28.  

Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks:

           Sage Publications.