El Príncipe predestinado
II. Un egipcio en la corte de Naharina
I have previously outlined five research objectives and five consecutive research questions, which all connect to the overarching aim of providing a better under- standing of Finland’s education export policies. This approach can be formulated as a case study. A case study, following Yin’s (2015) definition, is an in-depth investigation of a contemporary phenomenon in its context. “The case” can be an object, an event, a group of people, or any other research interest. According to Yin (2014), an important feature of a case study is that it “relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulation fashion” (p. 17). In a case study, multiple data is used to explore the same phenomenon from different angles. In this thesis, the defined unit of analysis, “the case”, are Finland’s national education export policies.
Yin argues further that case studies are more powerful and convincing when they are designed as multiple case studies. A multiple case study refers to a re- search design in which the research is replicated in different contexts to argue for one case (Yin, 2014, p. 58). My approach is slightly different: I use the arti- cle-based dissertation format to combining three individual case studies (the research article I-III). But those are not replications of the same case study de- sign. Instead, they differ in design and data and are complementary to each oth- er. Taken together, the three articles forward different facets of the same case, the education export policies. Therefore I chose the term of a multi-faceted case study.
Case studies can fit both in the qualitative as well as in the quantitative re- search paradigm and often use a mixed methods approach (Yin 2014; Yin & Heald, 1997). Depending on the data of the case study, the applied data analysis methods vary also within the study itself. The major rationale behind mixing methods in a case study is that the different research methods complement each other and can enrich the results through data triangulation (Neuman, 2006; Sale et. al., 2002). Mixed methods research has been criticized to favor quantitative research by using qualitative research as supplementary evidence. However,
Monika Schatz
RO 1: RO 2: RO 3: RO 4: RO 5:
Policy documents 9 9 9 9
Country Brand Report 9 9 9 9 9
Questionnaire 9 9 9 9
Data Research Objectives
Creswell and colleagues (2006) have argued that this is not necessary the case and advocate the advantages of qualitative research in mixed method approach- es.
Throughout this study I aim to stay close to the interpretive foundation of qualitative research. I will therefore follow what Mason (2006) coined a “quali- tatively-driven mixed methods research”. In practice, that means that I do keep my qualitative research framework, but I chose data analysis methods based on their suitability for answering the respective research question. This approach is following the advice of established missed methods researchers who argue that “pragmatism” should be what determines the most suitable application of data analysis methods (Clark & Creswell, 2008; Creswell et. al., 2006; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Morgan, 2007)
In order to make my umbrella case study a compelling one, I triangulated the research objectives within the three research articles. The following overview displays the types of data I gathered during the research process, and their corre- spondence to the five research objectives (RO 1: Develop a contextualization of Finnish education export policies; RO 2: Identify motives and aims of Finnish education export policies, RO 3: Clarify what constitutes the Finnish education export product, RO 4: Investigate how the Finnish education export strategies are implemented, RO 5: Reveal education export ideologies and discuss their implications).
Table 2: Data in correlation to research objectives
As Table 2 illustrates, the combination of policy documents, country brand and questionnaires provided a complementary solution in which each of the re- search objectives is addressed by at least two types of data.
The complementary aspect is further enhanced through a consecutive re- search design, demonstrated in Table 3. In the first research article, “Towards one of the leading education based economies? - Investigating Aims, Strategies
9 supports the objective does not support the objective
and Practices of Finland’s Education Export Landscape”, the two education ex- port policies (2010, 2013) serve as the key data. The second research article, "From PISA to National Branding: Exploring Finnish Education®", the policy documents provide supportive data, while the major emphasis lies on the Finnish Country Brand report. Both policy documents and the Country Brand Report serve as background for the third article, “Engines without Fuel? - Empirical Findings on the Role of Finnish Higher Education Institutions as Education Ex- porters”, which relies on data that was retrieved from the questionnaires.
Table 3: Data usage in research articles
This intertwinings are discussed in the intermission chapters between the arti- cles. In Chapter 8, findings of all three studies are triangulated with each other and with theoretical findings from the literature review.
Data Research Article 1 Research Article II Research Article III Policy Documents 9 9 9
Country Brand Report 9 9
Questionnaire 9
9 data included data not included
Monika Schatz