A defining characteristic of most forms of qualitative research is that the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. The researcher is involved with the participants, in order to gather data. The researcher' s immediacy to the
context also enables the collection of data through observation. Thus data could also be gathered through non-verbal sources.
The origin of the research presented here lies in the creation of a HEI by the Government of Maldives (GOM) to develop the provision of higher education in that country. This institution, the MCHE, was created through the merger of the then
existing post-secondary education and training institutions in October 1 998. I was then
the head (as Director) of one of the constituent post-secondary institutions, the Institute for Teacher Education, at the time of the merger. I was able to contribute to the review study and project formulation, undertaken by a team of external (Australian) consultants financed by the Asian Development Bank: (ADB), that led to the creation of the merger. From the day of the merger, I was also involved in the management of the newly created College as its Vice Rector in charge of academic affairs, including QA work. I was involved in this work during the first five years of the new College' s establishment. The ADB project was simultaneously initiated with the creation of the MCHE, in order to establish and further develop its capacities. As part of this project, a number of overseas consultants were engaged to assist the MCHE to establish many of its academic functions, which included governance and planning, academic affairs, curriculum development in selected disciplines and QA. Additionally, the proj ect mandated the establishment of an accreditation board, which would become the national focal point for external quality monitoring and assurance. I was a member of the accreditation board, from the time it was established until taking
up this research in early 2004.
Thus, I left the country with the explicit intention to undertake research on the topic of QA, which was directly related to the work I performed. As part of the ADB project mentioned before, an overseas consultant assisted the MCHE, particularly in the area of QA and academic standards. I had the good fortune of working as the local counterpart to this experienced researcher, who was generally well accustomed to the local culture and people, in addition to understanding the education system, through his prior consultancy assignments in the country. During this period, I was able to share with the said consultant, an initial research idea together with some broad questions. Thus, it is pertinent to recognise that I did not enrol in the Massey University research degree programme without prior insights into the topic or indeed from a point of total unawareness of "the literature of theory and fact on the area under study" as Glaser and Strauss (1 967, p. 3 7) originally recommended in their
theorising of Grounded Theory. I had worked alongside the consultant in developing and subsequently implementing a QA action plan at the MCHE. Glaser and Strauss later acknowledge, although in a footnote, that "the researcher does not approach the reality as a tabula rasa" (Glaser & Strauss, 1 967/1 995, p. 3).
Thus my prior professional experience was an invaluable source of information that guided my initial formulation and refinement of the research problem and questions. My professional encounters with international experts, my participation in MCHE Council, the Academic Board and the MAB (all policy making bodies) meetings, and the fortunate opportunities of attending consultations with higher officials, including ministers, deputy ministers and other senior executives, have provided me with tangible experience of policy formulation and implementation. Additionally, I have also benefited from study tours to other countries (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand), in relation to higher education planning and QA and I have attended regional and international seminars and conferences. Insights from the international literature, including various countries' case studies on the topic of QA, were also helpful in developing the research questions.
Issues relating to the role of the researcher in the research process can affect the credibility of the research findings. An accurate portrayal of the phenomenon under study ultimately rests with the researcher. As far as the primary case study site is concerned, I am certainly an insider researcher familiar with the setting. As discussed above, my close involvement with the emerging higher education sector in the Maldives, for a relatively long period of time, is both advantageous and problematic for this study. I am particularly aware of the issues of objectivity, impartiality and bias associated with working in a familiar setting. Objectivity is pursued in this study through the attention paid to the higher education context and circumstances surrounding the cases, in addition to the operational procedures adopted for the preparation, collection and analysis of the evidence which informs the report. Procedures adopted for this study are discussed in this chapter, whilst the context and circumstances are discussed in Chapter Four that follows, where the background contexts of the case study institutions are presented.
3.5 The Case Study Methodology
I have chosen case study as the research methodology (Crotty, 1 998), for this present study, since I am particularly interested in exploring, illuminating, discovering, comparing, contrasting and interpreting 'the case' of QA in higher education. Researchers use the case study approach to explain, evaluate or understand the complexity of the social world. For this reason, it is a particularly well-suited approach for researching educational issues. Being a study of policy processes, the case study research strategy is considered a particularly suitable approach (Heck, 2004; Merriam, 1 998).
Case study, which emerged in response to perceived inadequacies of the experimental and survey strategy, involves detailed description and analysis of individual cases. Case study has been described as "a spotlight on one instance" or "an in-depth,
multifaceted investigation" (Denscombe, 2003 ; Feagin, Orum, & Sjoberg, 1 99 1 ). Case
study, as a generic term in research, appears to have a range of meanings and
definitions. Some scholars tend to define case study as a process of actually
conducting an investigation (Yin, 2003b). Others focus on the unit of study (Stake,
1 995), whilst yet others define case study as an end product phenomenon within its
real-life context, particularly when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident" (p. 1 3) . As an end product of an investigation, case study, according to Merriam ( 1 998), is "an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single entity, phenomenon, or social unit" (p. 34) . Whilst Yin ' s approach leans towards the positivist paradigm, Stake's ( 1 995) conceptualisation of case study is in the interpretive paradigm. Stake (1 995) describes case study as "the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances" (p. xi). More recently, Stake (2005) declares that "a case study is both a process of inquiry about the case and the product of that inquiry" (p. 444). Stressing the singular, Bassey ( 1 999) explains case study as "study of a singularity conducted in depth in natural settings . . . to explore significant features of the case and to put forward interpretations of what is observed" (p. 47).
Stake ( 1 995, 2005) distinguishes between three different types of case studies, namely, intrinsic, instrumental, and collective case studies. Intrinsic case studies refer to research into a particular situation or case. Such studies are undertaken for their own sake, not because the case represents other cases but because it illustrates a particular characteristic. The intention of the researcher is to better understand the case
for its uniqueness or ordinariness (Berg, 2007). Stake (1 995), referring to intrinsic case study writes :
The case is given. We are interested in it, not because studying it we learn about other cases or about some general problem, but because we need to learn about that particular case. We have an intrinsic interest in the case. (p. 3)
Instrumental case studies refer to research into one or more particular situations, for the purpose of gaining insight or understanding of an external concern, theoretical question, problem or issue (Stake, 1 995, 2005; Berg, 2007). The case itself is secondary and plays a supportive role. Explaining instrumental case studies, Stake writes:
We will have a research question, a puzzlement, a need for general understanding, and feel that we may get insight into the question by studying a particular case . . . this use of case study is to understand something else. Case study here is instrumental to accomplishing something other than understanding [the particular case] . . . (Stake, 1 995, p. 3)
Stake ( 1 995) considers it to be the approach of choice, when there is a need for general understanding. He goes on to state that:
The real business of case study is particularisation and not generalisation . . . . There is emphasis on uniqueness of the case and on understanding the case itself. (p. 8)
Collective case studies involve extensive study and analysis of many instrumental
cases, with the aim of gaining. better understanding of a phenomenon. They are
distinguished from single case studies and are also known as multiple case studies, cross-case studies, comparative case studies, multicase or multi site case studies
(Merriam, 1 99 8 ; Stake, 2000).
For Yin ( 1 994) and Winston (as cited in Berg, 2007) case studies could be either
exploratory or descriptive or explanatory. Yin' s account of these forms of case studies can be captured from the following;
An exploratory case study . . . is aimed at defining the questions and hypotheses of a subsequent (not necessarily case) study. . . . A descriptive case study presents a complete description of a phenomenon within its contexts. An explanatory case study presents data bearing on cause-effect relationships - explaining which causes produced which effects. (Yin, 1 993, p. 5)
Merriam ( 1 998) uses a slightly different but overlapping classification of case studies. For Merriam (following Lijpart, 1 97 1 ) there are descriptive, interpretive and evaluative case studies. Descriptive case studies are narratives of a sequence of events,
rich in detail and atheoretical. In this type of study, the basic description of the subj ect comes before hypothesising or theory testing. Interpretive studies although rich in thick description, are used to "develop conceptual categories to illustrate, support, or challenge theoretical assumptions" (Merriam, 1 998, p. 3 8) held before the start of data collection. Evaluative case studies combine, in addition to description and explanation, a judgement, which it can be argued is the essence of sound evaluation. Following Guba and Lincoln ( 1 9 8 1 ), Merriam ( 1 998) agrees that this type of case study weighs "information to produce judgment. Judging is the final and ultimate act of evaluation" (p. 3 9).
Within the academic community, case study has attracted opposition on the grounds of a ' lack of rigour', ' little basis for scientific generalisation' , or leading to 'massive unreadable
�
ments', to state some comments (Bassey, 1 999; Yin, 1 994). Such criticisms generally appear as a result of the definitional diversity and lack of consensus for terms such as, method or methodology, the case, rigour, validity, reliability, generalisability or subjective bias amongst researchers. This could also be simply because the general characteristics surrounding these terms remain poorly understood and the potential of case study methodology itself remains underdeveloped. Making a clear distinction concerning the type of case study and delineating ' the case' in the present study has been a problematic issue. Whilst writers advocate the importance of distinguishing between types of case study, determining these differences is complex, particularly when no fewer than twenty three different types, kinds and categories of case studies exist in the literature (Bassey, 1 999;Hitchcock & Hughs, 1 995; Merriam, 1 998; Miles & Huberman, 1 994; Stake, 1 995,
2005; Stenhouse, 1 984; Yin, 2003b).
Other criticisms of the case study approach relate to the credibility of generalisations made from its findings (Denscombe, 2003 ; Yin, 2003b). For this reason, case study researchers are advised to "demonstrate the extent to which the case is similar to, or contrast with, others of its type" (Denscombe, 2003 , p. 3 9). Case studies, argues Yin (2003), are "generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to populations or universes" (p. 1 0). Case studies are also accused, albeit unjustifiably, of producing 'soft' data and providing descriptive accounts of the situation. They are considered by some as an approach "ill-suited to analyses or evaluations" (Denscombe, 2003, p. 3 9). Others have noted issues regarding the identification of the case or the unit of analysis (Atkinson & Delamont, as cited in Bassey, 1 999).
Chapter Three: Methodology
Despite these criticisms and seemingly negative aspects of case study, many
successful case studies have been reported III the literature (Yin, 2003 a, 2004).
Notable case studies have been conducted III a wide variety of fields such as
sociology, political science, public administration, social work, business, journalism,
economics, psychology, medicine, law and management (Bogdan & Biklen, 1 998;
Merriam, 1 99 8 ; Merriam & Associates, 2002; Yin, 2003 a, 2004). The case study
approach has also been successfully used in education (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003 ;
Merriam, 1 998; Stake, 2005) and in educational policy research (Heck, 2004).
Existing literature lends further support for the adoption of case study as the approach for this study. Cohen and Manion (1 980) assert that a case study researcher probes deeply 'the multifarious phenomena' that make up the unit of study. This study has addressed the complex phenomenon of QA and the way in which this policy has developed and been implemented. In the real life context of MCHE, the empirical investigation utilises in-depth interviewing, analysis of documents and feedback from a questionnaire, and the ' lived experience' of the researcher, as a staff member of the primary site of study.