Interpretive Case Study Research Articles

Arabic Slang Language Use in Pesantren: An Interpretive Case Study

Although research on the use of slang language has been widely studied, there is a paucity of studies that specifically looks at Arabic slang language among santri community in Indonesia. To fill such a void, the present study aims at examining the use of Arabic slang language among santri community in a modern pesantren in Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, and the factors that influence the use of such a language. Nested in an interpretive case study with data analyzed using Allan and Burridge’s (2006) slang language framework, the findings of this study suggest emerging types of slang used among the santri, which are in the forms of overlapping, clipping, acronyms, word-for-word translation, and the addition of local enclise elements. Such a language use was exclusively influenced by habits, creativity, and simplification in communication. Implications of the study show that the use of certain Arabic vocabulary can signal how a foreign language is acquired outside of the class

Towards realisation of the public value of e-government: anticipation-reality gap and critical success factors in the context of Rwanda

Involving and meeting stakeholders' values in a project will result in success of the project. The main objective of this study is to investigate the anticipation-reality gap; and, thereby, to identify the critical success factors for realising the public value of e-government. This study follows an interpretive case study using the empirical case of the IREMBO single-window portal for e-government in Rwanda. The data analysis utilised thematic analysis and concept-driven coding approaches. The data analysed consists of IT policy documents, project documents, and interviews with policymakers, project managers, public servants, citizens, and intermediaries. Gaps are identified and recommendations are proposed as critical success factors. The findings also revealed that cultivating the installed base of socio-economic and technical capabilities, including but not limited to stakeholder involvement and business process reengineering, will be a promising avenue for realising the public value of e-government in Rwanda.

Distance and grief: Optimising wellbeing for transnational migrants in Tasmania

End-of-life care, bereavement and grief involve significant challenges and impact our wellbeing in varied ways. For transnational migrants, geographical distance to a dying loved one, relatives, friends and meaningful locations can further complicate care, bereavement and grief. Our research aims to improve understandings of the role distance plays for transnational migrant wellbeing at these times. Using an instrumental, interpretative case study design we explored the experiences of five people with migration backgrounds with end-of-life care, bereavement and grief in Tasmania, Australia. Additional data sources included policies for end-of-life and bereavement care in Tasmania. In our study, participants tended to seek – and create – places and spaces of informal, rather than formal, support, both in their receiving society and country of origin. Online spaces played a key role: keeping people in touch with family members overseas, providing a means to care from a distance and ways to participate in grief rituals – albeit with mixed success. A lack of places to perform death and grief rituals, and inability to be physically present at a loved one's death (for some, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions) posed significant challenges to participants’ wellbeing and impacted coping. We argue that if societies better understand the significances of places, spaces and distance during times of end-of-life, bereavement and grief, we can adjust policy and practice accordingly to collectively optimise wellbeing for transnational migrants.

Patterns in undergraduate students’ and educators’ sense of the ontology of the atom and implications for addressing learning impediments

In this study, we explored undergraduate chemistry education at Kotebe University of Education (KUE) in terms of the ontological orientations, patterns and source domains of educators’ and undergraduate students’ sense of the atom. Due to the ambiguity and controversy regarding atomic ontology as a case of interest and the requirement for a thorough analysis, an interpretative case study design was employed. It mainly involved a semi-structured interview of 10 educators and 14 undergraduate students. The analysis involved Charmaz's approach for coding. Four core patterns were found to constitute the overall narrative of educators and undergraduate students, from which the interpretative, mechanical, and hypothetical orientations were implied. The ways of thinking in the three patterns were traced back to the underemphasis and distorted portrayal of the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) in the curriculum and classroom discourse. The usage of some words and expressions with mechanical connotations was also discovered to be the fourth theme of patterns to which the mechanical orientations are attributed. Views of controversial ontologies are held by the participants of this single system. There is also an emerging inclination among undergraduate students toward reductionism, which is not expected from a chemistry student. Therefore, this study implies that the historical and philosophical aspects need to be critically examined in classroom instruction, curriculum development, professional development of educators, and research on chemistry education to avoid ontological complications and address learning impediments. The instructional approaches, materials, and classroom discourse also need to be examined carefully from an ontological point of view to avoid unnecessary complications and obstacles.

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF 2013 CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The aim of this study was to examine English teachers’ perceptions and concerns about the implementation of the2013 curriculum in Junior high school in Indonesia. This study reports findings from interpretive case study design in a private junior high school in Medan region, Indonesia with 2 teachers. Data were generated using questionnaires, focus group interview, classroom observation and documentation. The research focus was on how the English teachers have implemented the 2013 curriculum. The findings indicate that the implementation of the curriculum was still problematic due to the teachers’ lack of knowledge of the 2013 curriculum and the teachers’ pile of work. In addition, one of the teachers was still confused with the implementation of the 2013 curriculum, to work with teenagers’ students, overcrowded classrooms, learning environments, and insufficient teaching and learning materials and facilities. This study recommends that to improve the current situation and attain quality provision of junior high schools, teachers need to develop their professional knowledge through socialization and the in-service training. The government policy planners need to provide initial teacher education that suit junior high school contexts, professional development, and conducive teaching and learning environments with available resources for effective teaching and learning practices.

Investigation of Preferred Teaching Pedagogies of Preservice Science Teachers through Individual and Team Studies

The purpose of this research is to examine how working individually and as a team in solving pedagogical scenarios for teaching science subjects is reflected in the teaching preferences of preservice science teachers. This interpretive case study was conducted with 69 preservice science teachers studying at a university in eastern Turkey. The data of the study were collected using the teaching pedagogy preference form. The data analysis included descriptive analysis based on four instructional pedagogies: direct instruction, direct active, guided inquiry, and open inquiry. The research results revealed that preservice teachers did not sufficiently turn to inquiry-based teaching pedagogy for solving problem scenarios in both individual and teamwork. In addition, the results indicated that preservice science teachers' professional knowledge of teaching various science subjects is largely based on traditional teaching pedagogy. Based on these results, it is recommended that science educators use problem scenarios to reveal preservice teachers' inquiry-based teaching preferences.

Promoting Awareness of the Role of the District Clinical Specialist Team in the Amathole District, South Africa: A Valuable Specialty in Improving Healthcare Access and Quality.

This study explored the understanding of healthcare professionals on the role of the District Clinical Specialist Team (DCST) and how the team works together with the district personnel at different management levels to improve and strengthen the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme performance across four sub-districts in the Amathole district of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. An interpretive qualitative case study was used to understand the role played by the DCST in improving PMTCT programme performance in the district. We used a purposive sampling method to select eight participants involved in providing technical assistance to support the implementation of the quality improvement programme. We conducted in-depth interviews with all the participants; all were females in their mid-forties. Data were analysed thematically by identifying themes and reporting patterns within the data. Most interviewees were females in their mid-forties and had been at their respective facilities for at least five years. The findings were discussed based on three themes: capacity building, programme performance oversight and monitoring, and technical support. The DCST significantly enhances the staff's clinical skills, knowledge, and work performance to care for and manage the mother and baby pair. In addition, the DCST plays a vital role in providing programme oversight and complements the technical support provided by the Department of Health (DoH) managers and the quality improvement programme support by the South to South (S2S) team aimed at improving and achieving the PMTCT programme's desired outcomes. The DCST also provided additional support for data verification to identify gaps in the PMTCT programme. The role of DCST is essential in improving the quality and service provision of the PMTCT programme and is critical to assist the team at different levels in addressing challenges encountered and training and mentoring the needs of the staff. In addition, DCST's responsibilities cannot be fully achieved without a good working relationship with the quality improvement and district health teams because they work better together to ensure that the programme is performing optimally. This study showed that the District Clinical Specialist Team is vital for improving the quality and service provision of the PMTCT programme and it is essential for addressing challenges encountered by healthcare facilities and the staff providing PMTCT services.

HOW WORTHY IS DALTON’S PURSUIT OF CHEMICAL ATOMISM FOR THE PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS? A CASE OF KOTEBE UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, ETHIOPIA

Atom possesses controversial ontological accounts even in a single discipline such as chemistry. Its essence as a reality and inclusion in science education has been subjected to numerous philosophical and scientific debates. The educational literature also shows that the ancient corpuscular notion is dominantly portrayed within the curriculum and instruction of many educational settings. The fundamental problem is that the chemists, educators, philosophers, and historians of chemistry themselves haven’t had a substantial agreement on any of the philosophical and scientific accounts due to their longstanding philosophical divide between the different positions of positivism and realism. Neither has the historical perspective of philosophy and science been reasonably acknowledged in science/chemistry education. We aimed in this interpretative case study to figure out how much Dalton’s pursuit of the chemical atomism is worth to 22 purposely selected and interviewed prospective teachers. The resulting transcripts were analyzed using HPS, the seven milestones of its case study. As a result, one major and two minor themes were found none of which match any of the themes of the milestones. Moreover, the entire narrative lacks some essential perspectives and contexts of HPS in general and Dalton’s experimentations in particular. Misjudgment of his indivisibility notion, for example, is a drawback associated with this limitation. Thus, more inquiries are needed to be conducted in the long run into the curriculum and classroom practice while departmental discussions on such issues are suggested in the short run.

Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Handling Competing Institutional Logics for DHIS2 Adoption in Ethiopian Public Health Care Context

Information System (IS) research advocates employing collaborative and loose coupling strategies to address contradictory issues to address diversified actors’ interests than the prescriptive and unilateral Information Technology (IT) governance mechanisms’, yet it is rarely depicting how managers employ these strategies in Health Information System (HIS) implementation, particularly in a resource-constrained setting where IS implementation activities have highly relied on multiple international organizations resources. This study explored how managers in resource-constrained settings employ collaborative IT governance mechanisms in the case of District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) adoption with an interpretative case study approach and the institutional logic concept. The institutional logic concept was used to identify the major actors’ logics underpinning the DHIS2 adoption. The study depicted the importance of high-level officials' distance from the dominant systemic logic to consider new alternative, and to employ inclusive IT governance mechanisms which separated resource from the system that facilitated stakeholders’ collaboration in DHIS2 adoption based on their capacity and interest.

The Legitimacy of a Sharing Economy-Enabled Digital Platform for Socioeconomic Development

A sharing economy based on improved ICT is an emerging economic−technological concept. Sharing economy-enabled digital platforms in China have changed patterns of consumption, exploited under-utilized resources, and increased employment. Previous studies on sharing economy-enabled digital platforms mainly focused on the positive and negative effects, users’ perception and behavioral intention, and the business model, but few studies have addressed these platforms for socioeconomic development from the perspective of legitimacy. This study applied legitimacy to analyze a typical sharing economy-enabled digital platform in China for socioeconomic development via a longitudinal interpretive case study. A process model of variation and evolution of an online car-hailing platform for socioeconomic development was inductively derived, allowing elucidation of the complexities and interplay of regulative challenges, normative challenges, and cognitive challenges in each developmental phase, resulting in improving and enriching the way people go out, optimizing resource allocation, increasing employment, and undertaking social responsibility. The findings of this case study provide a comprehensive and supported framework and demonstrate a successful model for managers and other peer organizations for future business efforts in the sharing economy.

Leadership practices and indicators of quality, connected through internal evaluation processes in the New Zealand ECE sector

The last few years has seen a significant increase in the attention paid to leadership in the New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) sector, particularly in guiding documents. While these provide greater clarity than previously on expectations around leadership practice, a greater understanding of what leadership means and how it is implemented in different contexts is still needed. This article is based on a study exploring how educational leadership is practised through internal evaluation processes in New Zealand ECE services, and how these practices support the professional capabilities and capacities of teachers. Previous research has highlighted that a practice approach to leadership removes the focus on the individual leader and allows leadership to emerge from collective action. The objectives of this research study were: to develop a better understanding of how educational leadership is practised through internal evaluation processes; explore what challenges or enables teachers to become involved and practise educational leadership through internal evaluation processes; and to understand how services monitor the impact of changes on teaching practice, made as a result of an internal evaluation.
 This qualitative research, which took the form of an interpretive case study, was framed around a single case design with multiple units of analysis. Data were gathered from three participating ECE services through interviews, focus groups and observations, and drew on the perspectives of both teachers and positional leaders. A reflexive thematic data analysis approach was employed, and four key themes were developed: identification with leadership; supportive workplace culture; continuous improvement; and effective leadership practices in ECE services. Seven effective leadership practices were also identified: relational leadership; creating the conditions for teamwork; engagement; knowledge expertise and sharing opinions; shared decision making; facilitating and guiding and accountability and organisation. This article contributes to our further understanding of educational leadership practices in New Zealand ECE services.

Layered Pedagogies of Instruction and Restorative Justice: A Kindergarten Case Study of Community and Belonging

The current climate of education often results in surveillance of outcomes and accountability in early childhood learning and management, especially in schools serving Black, Indigenous, and Children of Color. Historically, classroom management has been about controlling students, the environment, and ultimately what and how learning takes place. In response, centering restorative justice as a humanizing approach to classroom management is necessary to focus on equity. However, this focus can be filled with tensions and conflicting philosophies against the status quo in schools. Likewise, classroom community practices, including punitive and restorative discipline, are typically looked at separately from academic learning, without consideration of the interconnected pedagogical decisions that undergird experiences for students. Positioning an either/or mentality can result in a dichotomy of what is good and bad in education that obscures the complexities and nuance of teachers’ work. This interpretive case study examines intersections of academics and community building to understand a sense of belonging in an early childhood classroom. This study illustrates how one kindergarten community navigated opposing perspectives and pedagogies. Discourse analysis revealed findings of how the class traversed the complexity of languaging to build community in a context self-identified as restorative, while also implementing highly structured literacy curricula, and a mix of discipline philosophies. This study humanizes tensions experienced within the constraints of the current educational system as teachers and young children build towards restorative justice as a way of being.

Governing digital crisis responses: platform standards and the dilemma of COVID-19 contact tracing

In response to the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, various developers turned to smartphone-based contact tracing to address the challenges of manual tracing. Due to the presence of network effects, i.e., the effectiveness of contact tracing applications increases with the number of users, information technology standards were critical to the technology’s success. The standardization efforts in Europe led to a variety of trade-offs concerning the choice of an appropriate technological architecture due to the contradictory tensions resulting from the dualism between the need for contact tracing data to contain the pandemic and the need for data minimization to preserve user privacy. Drawing predominantly on the software platform and standards literature, we conduct an interpretive case study to examine the emergence and consequences of this multi-layered decision situation. Our findings reveal how Google and Apple were able to limit the individual leeway of external developers, thereby effectively resolving the European standards war. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the various short-term and long-term trade-offs associated with the standardization of contact tracing applications and translate our findings into recommendations for policy makers with respect to future crisis situations. Specifically, we propose a strategy grounded in our data that enables responsible actors to make goal-oriented and rapid decisions under time constraints.

Reading Modalities of Teachers From La Araucanía, Chile: What Can We Learn From Their Teaching Practices?

Even though pedagogical practices of reading mediation are essential for the development of reading, according to available evidence, in Chile they continue to be predominantly reproductive and are dominated by teacher discourse. Based on the above, the purpose of this research was to analyze the reading modalities found in the pedagogical practices of reading mediation of teachers of different disciplines in public schools in the Araucanía Region, Chile, in order to provide more evidence. In order to do this, 1.485 minutes of classes were videotaped, and 11 teachers and their episodes of reading modalities were analyzed. The methodology corresponded to a descriptive, qualitative and interpretative multiple case study. Among the results, we highlight that shared reading was the most common, although not all teachers take advantage of its expressive and motivational potential. In addition, teachers do not make explicit the benefits associated with the different reading modalities, so they are probably not fully aware of them. Finally, we present projections and implications for teaching.

Developing Teacher Identity in the Liminal Space of Simulations

This interpretive case study addressed what the contribution of liminal experiences were to teacher identity formation within the observable context of a series of mixed reality simulations of parent-teacher conferences. Data collected for the study were from a demographic questionnaire, interviews, observations, and documents. Data analysis resulted in one finding statement featuring three key themes, each of which were informed by the various ways in which the theme was manifested in the present study. The finding statement was: Preservice teachers whose identities developed in the liminal space of a series of mixed reality experiences simulating parent-teacher conferences adopted a growth mindset, employed coping strategies in liminality, and made meaning from experiences. A discussion of the findings suggested that adopting a growth mindset enabled preservice teachers to embrace simulations for learning purposes, to learn from peers, and to grapple with complexity. Implications of the study are addressed.

Jasperactive as a Gamification Tool for Motivation and Engagement in Adult Learners

Gamification is the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts. This paper explored how gamification can be a motivation and engagement tool for adult learners in an End-user Computing (EUC) course. Due to their high workloads and limited practice opportunities, staff members at the University of Technology (UoT) struggled to find time to enhance their EUC skills. The researchers used the Jasperactive platform to teach EUC skills to adult learners. A conceptual framework using motivation and engagement theories and elements was used as a conceptual lens for this study. The study followed an interpretive case study design with a qualitative approach. The sample comprised thirty participants who were purposefully selected and regarded as adult learners. Data was collected through the researcher’s observations and one-on-one interviews with six participants. Thematic data analysis was conducted using the elements included in the conceptual framework. The findings revealed how certain gamification elements influenced the motivation and engagement of adult learners. The study findings, furthermore, indicated that gamification may be used to solve motivation and engagement issues in training and working environments if it is well-designed and founded on well-established execution principles. Moreover, when adult learners are motivated and involved in the learning process, current motivation and engagement theories might be useful to explain the phenomenon. Adult learners seemed to be motivated and engaged in the effort to enhance their EUC abilities when using a gamified platform like Jasperactive. The study suggested that the participants were further motivated to complete the course to obtain their Microsoft Office Specialist certificate.

Exploring Teacher Knowledge in Natural Sciences

This is a qualitative interpretative case study. Its aim is to explore the teacher knowledge of senior phase Natural Sciences teachers. The following question guided the study: What is the nature of teacher knowledge of natural sciences teachers in the senior phase? Semi structured interviews and observations were used to collect data from three purposefully sampled participants. The findings reveal that senior phase teachers have limited content knowledge and inadequate subject matter knowledge and this enflamed misconception which could be transferred to their learners. It is therefore prudent to recommend a re-focus in the in-service teacher training and colleges of Education to improve teacher’s subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge as they could be a barrier to effective teaching and learning and learner’s performance in Natural Sciences.

Environmental Education efforts in a rural drought-prone district in Zimbabwe: Micro innovations with growth potential

In Sub-Saharan Africa, climate change is evident due to the frequency of drought cycles. This paper explores the Environmental Education (EE) efforts for reducing the impact of climate change in drought prone Gwanda district, Zimbabwe. The paper focuses on how climate change mitigation and adaptation stakeholders within the community can initiate EE programs which have the potential to be upscaled to macro innovations. A qualitative interpretive case study approach was used with three data generation tools (interviews, a focus group discussion and document analysis). The sample comprised 38 participants. The study was guided by the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Framework (1998). The study revealed that for EE programmes to be effective, they have to harness local factors. The study found that formal field days, information and skills sharing among neighbours during letsema/lidaba and Indigenous Knowledge Systems were micro innovations with growth potential to build farmers’ generative resilience to climate change.

Stressing affordances: Towards an appraisal theory of technostress through a case study of hospital nurses' use of electronic medical record systems

Nurses use electronic medical record (EMR) systems to accomplish a variety of care-related tasks. Nurses, therefore, encounter a range of stressful situations and events related to using EMR systems, a phenomenon known as technostress. Previous research suggests that individuals appraise technostress differently. However, not much is known about the appraisal process of technostress. By integrating the literature on technostress, affordances, and appraisal theory, this paper introduces the appraisal theory of technostress, which is developed empirically through an interpretive case study involving interviews with hospital nurses. The appraisal theory of technostress explains how individuals process and appraise information about how to potentially act on technology-related stressful events through a system's features. Information about the event, and information about the action potential afforded by the system's features, is evaluated through an appraisal process that includes three appraisal checks: goal relevance, goal conduciveness, and value compatibility. The appraisal checks verify whether the action possibilities of the system's features align or misalign with an individual's goals and values related to action, and shape how the event and the system's features are appraised as challenge or hindrance techno-stressors. Overall, the study offers a novel theoretical perspective and methodological approach to conceptualizing and investigating technostress. More detailed contributions to research and practice are also discussed.

Clarifying the significance of instructional methodologies for environmental education integration

This paper was aimed at clarifying the significance of instructional methodologies used by senior-phase teachers to integrate environmental education. The researcher’s empirical evidence evoked interest in this paper; the researcher noted that senior-phase teachers would barely integrate environmental education and if they did, they would only rely on an outdoor teaching method. This observation piqued the paper's attention. A qualitative interpretive multiple case study method was used. This paper was conducted in three senior phase schools in the Nkangala district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Three teachers who taught natural science, technology, and life orientation subjects were sampled purposefully. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and pre- and post-lesson observations, and a typology approach was used to analyze data. The main research findings were that these teachers had confusion about which instructional methodologies to use when integrating environmental education. Furthermore, this paper revealed that the use of instructional methodologies such as narrative, lecture, project, jigsaw, textbook, and student team accomplishment division methods hampered environmental education integration inadequately. Nonetheless, instructional methodologies such as the interactive method, the outdoor learning method, the question-and-answer method, and the discussion method allowed some of these teachers to integrate environmental education effectively. Therefore, to ensure that there is an education for sustainable development and that teaching and learning are responsive to the Sustainable Development Goals. It is recommended that the curriculum implementers and teachers establish ongoing environmental education programs consistent with South Africa’s Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement to enable adequate integration of environmental education through various instructional methodologies.