Contexto educativo general

In response to the above research questions and aims, it was decided that the case study approach would be the most beneficial for the research. This research approach is fruitful in cases where an issue has to be investigated not only in depth but also within the context of a real life situation, such as a school or classroom, thereby giving explanations and making connections, generalizations and parallelisms between similar circumstances (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2007; Denscombe 2007). In the current study, the selection of the case study method required a targeted, narrow group of participants and in this case the two groups of children were neither too large to compromise the process itself nor too small to prohibit the collection of data necessary to answer the research questions: (1) in what ways the pupil participants increased their

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self-esteem and (2) were there any social skills acquired and/or further developed when participating in drama activities and how is this evidenced.

Case studies work best with how or why questions, when attention to behaviours and their explanation are more important than simple description of events, though this too is necessary. According to Cohen et al. (2007), the case study method is a specific instance planned to illuminate a more general principle, providing a unique view of people in real-life situations and community systems (such as a class, a school, a clique and others). It allows and enables people to understand theories and ideas plainly and clearly, while demonstrating the application of a theory in a real life situation and compare its results to other similar cases and situations (i.e. arising problems or opportunities and how or when they can be used towards the participants’ benefit). One of the advantages of the case study is that it can illustrate facts on situations that are not necessarily subject to numerical analysis, as in the case of artistic pursuits. Case study research distinctively focuses on the depth of the study rather than its breadth, targeting the core of the situation instead of covering the broad results, as for example happens in research employing quantitative methods (i.e. survey). The case study maintains a holistic view of the situation, considering both human relationships and the process as a whole, instead of focusing on isolated facts or only on their possible outcomes, since human relationships within social settings tend to be interconnected and interrelated. In the current study, the investigator was more interested in the details and complexities of human relationships, on participants' perspectives and actions, and how the above connect and impact with each other (Denscombe, 2007).

2.2.2 Ethnographic Characteristics

The term of Ethnography is often associated with qualitative research projects, aiming to enlighten and describe everyday life situations in their respective environments (Merriam, 1998), keeping in mind that people placed into any particular environment are

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initiated into particular kinds of knowledge and types of behaviour (Kushner, 2000). Because it uses an extensive amount of detail and information for the necessary descriptions, it is also known as “thick description” (Geertz, 1973). It is defined as a method of conducting qualitative research and, at the same time, it is also the outcome of that research, aiming for the cultural interpretation of a phenomenon’s construction and the web of possible meanings and connections (Creswell 2007; Hoey, 2014). Ethnography can become a powerful tool of articulating the everyday life situations, their possible hidden meanings and their final findings (Woods, 1996).

This study, while not an Ethnography as such, adopts core characteristics of an ethnographic approach towards the data collection and its interpretation, analysis and writing up of the findings. In other words, and to avoid confusion, this researcher uses some elements of Ethnography (such as “thick description”, an insider’s approach to collecting data, participant observation as a tool for data collection) that allowed deeper insight, knowledge and understanding over the processes the study aimed to research. The aspects of the ethnographic approach that this study borrows can be located in (1) the researcher’s role in the classroom as a participant observer, (2) the “thick description” necessarily provided, in the later chapter of the Data Analysis and (3) the subjective interpretations of the findings, in the chapters of Discussion and Conclusion.

2.2.3 Case Study with Ethnographic Characteristics

This type of case study was selected from a wide variety of forms of case study research. According to Yin (2003) there are three types of case study research: (1) exploratory, (2) descriptive and (3) explanatory, a classification that agrees with Meriam’s (1988) and Stake’s (1994). In short, these researchers support that a case study (1) is developed as a pilot to be used and understood as a base to be used by other studies, (2) provides inside information of the event/participants explaining and giving reasoning of their actions and thoughts and (3) reaches conclusions over the possible assumptions while testing the previous theories. Apart from those core types, case studies can also be “ethnographic”, “evaluative”, “educational”, and others

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(Stenhouse, 1988). The use of ethnography in the current study is informed by a need for “thick description” of behaviours and of detailed social interactions as pupils engaged in the Drama activities.

Similarly, case studies need accurate description and subjective, yet disciplined interpretation of their data and its manifold possible meanings, factors also supported and provided by an ethnographic approach.; their main focus is targeted on different perceptions of culture and social phenomena; they require at least a short amount of empathy as a skill to understand and interpret the situations at hand and the data acquired, within the respective natural environment that the study is taking place (Stake, 2000). In short, the current approach was selected because of the in-depth understanding and detailed observation it both offers to the researcher and requires of him to narrate and interpret the situations, social connections, perspectives and inner feelings of the participant individuals of the study.