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my research participants and with a view to ultimately providing readers with the
materials for their own constructions (Guba & Lincoln, 1989).
The challenge in this research study was to provide cases rich in description to
enable the reader to experience what the participants have experienced and to be able to
relate this to his or her own practices. It is likely that my interpretations will be
emphasized more than the interpretations of those I am studying as I bring my own
contexts to the process of inquiry. However, the eventual aim will be try to preserve
multiple realities (Stake, 1995).
Choosing a case study approach to this research study has been purposeful.
Audience has been a critical factor in methodological choice. The audience I am writing
for are early childhood educators. It is a sector of the educational field to which I feel
passionately aligned. I value the place of early childhood educators as the teachers who
help lay the foundation for all learning. I see early childhood education as a marginalized
sector compared to others on the educational spectrum. I see early childhood educators
bearing the burden of a public image that belittles their worth. In this way my values have
impacted this study. In choosing research methodology I looked for one that would be
amenable to early childhood educators.
Building case studies from stories of practice should enable accessibility for the
practitioner. Walsh, Tobin, and Graue (1993) suggest that classroom teachers,
particularly early childhood educators have little use for research literature based on
quantitative methods. Stories of practice as told in case studies are accessible not simply
because they are written in language understandable to the practitioner, “but also because,