With my research proposal's strategy being the case study, I looked forward to this week's readings.  Now, I'm looking forward to the class discussion because I'm not quite sure of myself.  Yin's article assured me of the value of the case study as a research tool.  I liked his clarification about the types of evidence, the methods for data collection and the research strategies.  He argues that the case study does not imply use of a particular data collection method and that what distinguishes the case study is that it attempts to examine a "contemporary phenomenon in its real life context."  It is at this point in the article that I start to question my own proposal.  I think I need to think about this so-called "phenomenon."  Yin argues that the case method is used when the boundary between the phenomenon and context is not clearly evident ( unlike an experiment where the boundary is made.)  I need to think ( and write more about this.)  The last point that I like to ponder is Yin's classifying the types of case studies--explanatory, descriptive and exploratory--I'd like to think more about these differences.
Mary