Teaching outdoor and adventure activities: an investigation of a primary school physical education professional development p

Narrative
. According to Creswell (2007) narrative research involves focussing 
on studying one or two individuals, gathering data through the collection of their stories 
and reporting their life stories chronologically as well as the meaning of those stories.
Narrative studies may have a specific contextual focus such as teachers or children in a 
classroom. However as this study took a whole school approach and involved twenty 
eight teachers, individual narratives of the teachers was beyond its scope. According to 
Clandinin and Connelly (2000) narrative research is best for capturing the detailed 
stories or life experience of a single life or the lives of a small number of individuals. 

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Case Study
. A case study aims to understand a case in depth, and in context 
recognising its complexity, which suits the case of a single primary school, as in this 
study. Case studies are prevalent throughout the field of education (Merriam, 1998).
Yin (1994) defines a case study as, ‘an empirical inquiry that investigates a 
contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when boundaries 
between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident’ (p. 13). Miles and Huberman 
(1994) think of a case as a ‘phenomenon of some sort occurring in a bounded context’ 
(p. 25). This methodology was deemed the most appropriate for this study. The 
bounded context, or case was established as the school context, limited by the teachers, 
children and the school principal. The case was also bounded by the fact that the 
phenomenon to be studied, teachers’ and children’s experiences of a contextualised, 
whole school professional development programme was over a finite amount of time, 
i.e. the preparation, design and implementation of the professional development 
programme. The case study approach allows for multiple methods of data collection, 
and although seen mainly as a qualitative methodology, quantitative methods of data 
collection are not discarded.
Case study is a suitable research methodology when a researcher is interested in 
process, an outcome of this study. The case study focuses on holistic description and 
explanation (Merriam, 1998), process meaning, describing the context and study 
population, discovering the extent to which a programme is implemented, explaining 
the cause of the process and its effect or impact (Stake, 1995), which aligns with the 
research questions of this study. There are many different types of case study; 
exploratory, descriptive, explanatory (Yin, 1994); descriptive, interpretative and 
evaluative (Merriam, 1988); ethnographic, action research, evaluative and educational 
(Sturman, 1999); and intrinsic, instrumental and collective (Stake, 1994). According to 
Merriam (1998), case studies are useful when presenting information about innovative 
practices and programmes where little research has been conducted in the past. These 
studies may then in the future provide a baseline or database for comparative studies, 
and play an important role in advancing a field’s knowledge base. Because of these 
strengths and the fact that very little research has been carried out in an Irish whole 
school context of professional development, case study is the most appealing 
methodology for this study. The professional development programme at the heart of 
this study can be examined to bring about understanding which may in turn affect and 
bring about change in practice. Constructivism allows the researcher justify lots of 

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description in the reporting of the study (Stake, 1995). In this study the researcher is the 
primary instrument of data gathering and analysis and is left primarily to their own 
instinct and ability throughout the process. Although, this may be a limitation of a case 
study, in the research design and methods of data collection and analysis precautionary 
steps were taken to ensure the integrity of the researcher and the methods of collection 
and analysis at all times. Following a constructivist view of knowledge does not require 
the researcher to avoid generalisations, as is sometimes pointed to as a limitation of case 
studies, but in this case should provide readers with good information for their own 
generalising. The case study methodology is described further in chapter three – 
Research Design.