The role and process of case studies: How frameworks support rich descriptions of chemistry education

Introduction

Case studies are a form of research that permit the rich description of particular situations as a component for understanding specific situations in chemistry education in deep and meaningful ways. Through the careful use of well-identified theoretical frameworks, case studies aim to obtain a form of analytical generalizability that also make them strong components of the research findings appropriate in thinking about how more systematic principles apply in specific settings, following principles described by Robert Yin. In this talk, I will present background on how literature frameworks can shape the qualitative inquiry of case studies, focusing on a recent study looking at the practices of new chemistry teaching assistants in a college preparatory chemistry class. Through the primary use of Stanton Wortham’s framework of social identification and Étienne Wenger’s framework of communities of practice, the case study examined how particular factors in the teaching environment—ranging from the worksheets to the chemistry content to the interactions with students—are present as mediators between teaching practice and identity for these graduate students.