Being of a nervous disposition as a child, Gary Thomas failed to write anything on his 11-plus examination paper, which inaction took him to secondary modern school. He eventually became a teacher, then an educational psychologist, then a professor of education at the University of Birmingham, where his teaching, research and writing have focused on inclusive education and the methods used in social science research. He has led a wide range of research projects and has received research funding from the AHRC, the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Department for Education, charities such as Barnardo’s and the Cadmean Trust, local authorities and a range of other organisations. He has written or edited 30 books, lots of boring academic articles, and quite interesting essays on the state of education in the national press. He was the editor of journals such as the British Educational Research Journal and Educational Review.He has two grown-up daughters, one daughter at school, and two grandchildren. He likes, in alphabetical order, birds, chess, cycling, dogs, his family, gardening, reading and writing.Despite supporting Aston Villa football club, he maintains an optimistic outlook on life.

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• VOLUME ONE: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES AROUND THE USE OF CASE STUDIES IN SOCIAL SCIENCEDo Physicists Use Case Studies? Thoughts on Public Administration Research - Mary Timney Bailey Cases, Causes, Conjunctures, Stories, Imagery - Howard BeckerInforming Generality and Explaining Uniqueness - York Bradshaw and Michael Wallace The Place of Case Studies in Comparative ResearchThe Narrative Construction of Reality - Jerome Bruner Observation, Context and Sequence in the Study of Politics - Richard FennoFive Misunderstandings about Case Study Research - Bent FlyvbjergThe Issue of Quality in Qualitative Research - Martyn HammersleyIntroduction - Martyn Hammersley and Roger Gomm Case Studies as Natural Experiments - Allen LeeComparative Politics and the Comparative Method - Arend Lijphart′Case Study′ in American Methodological Thought - Jennifer Platt Introduction - Charles RaginCases of ′What Is a case?′How Narratives Explain - Paul RothPersuasion with Case Studies - Nicolaj SiggelkowA Typology for the Case Study in Social Science Following a Review of Definition, Discourse and Structure - Gary ThomasDoing Case Study - Gary Thomas Abduction not Induction; Phronesis not Theory Redefining Case Study - Rob Van Wynsberghe and Samia KhanCase Studies - Michel WieviorkaHistory or Sociology?VOLUME TWO: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES AROUND THE USE OF CASE STUDIES IN EDUCATIONBread and Dreams or Bread and Circuses? A Critique of ′Case Study′ Research in Education - Paul Atkinson and Sara DelamontEducational Research and Inter-Textual Forms of (Re) Presentation - Carl Bagley and Mary Beth CancienneThe Case for Dancing the DataPedagogic Research - Michael BasseyOn the Relative Merits of Search for Generalization and Study of Single Events Pedagogic Research into Singularities - Michael BasseyCase Studies, Probes and Curriculum Innovations Making the Case - David GarvinProfessional Education for the World of Practice The Imagination of the Case and the Invention of the Study - Stephen Kemmis This Is Your Father′s Paradigm - Patti LatherGovernment Intrusion and the Case of Qualitative Research in Education Case Study and the Social Philosophy of Educational Research - Barry MacDonald and Rob WalkerIn Search of Subjectivity - One′s Own - Alan PeshkinEthics of Case Study in Educational Research and Evaluation - Helen Simons The Paradox of Case Study - Helen SimonsAn Evolving Logic of Participant Observation, Educational Ethnography and Other Case Studies - Louis Smith The Case Study Method in Social Inquiry - Robert StakeCase Study and Case Records - Lawrence Stenhouse Towards a Contemporary History of EducationThe Study of Samples and the Study of Cases - Lawrence StenhouseThe Case - Gary ThomasGeneralization and Theory in Case Study Three Good Reasons for not Doing Case Studies in Curriculum Research - Rob WalkerCase Study, Case Records and Multimedia - Rob WalkerVOLUME THREE: THE CASE STUDY IN PRACTICE - GENERAL ISSUES AND SPECIFIC EXAMPLESAfter Cultural Competency - Peter Benson and Kedron Thomas Research Practice and Moral Experience in the Study of Brand Pirates and Tobacco Farmers The Last People Alive - J. Diamond Pitcairn and Henderson IslandsTheory -Building from Cases - Kathleen Eisenhardt and Melissa GraebnerOpportunities and Challenges Extract from Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud Deep Play - Clifford GeertzNotes on the Balinese Cockfight Phase One - A.L. George and A. Bennett Designing Case Study ResearchWhat Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for? - John GerringA Case for Case Studies in Social Work Research - Jane Gilgun First Developments of the Young Savage of Aveyron - J.M.G. ItardFrom Interview to Story - Christine Elizabeth KiesingerWriting Abbie′s Life Case and Situation Analysis - J.Clyde Mitchell The First Night - J. PatrickParticipatory Photography - Esther Prins A Tool for Empowerment or Surveillance?Embodiment, Academics and the Audit Culture - Andrew SparkesA Story Seeking ConsiderationWhat Is a Case Study? - Gary Thomas Extract from ′The Polish Peasant in Europe and America′ - W.I. Thomas and F. ZnanieckiVOLUME FOUR: EXAMPLES OF CASE STUDIES IN EDUCATIONAdolescents, Social Life and School Life - S.J. Ball′Five on the First of December!′ - Liz BrookerWhat Can We Learn from Case Studies of Early Childhood Literacy? The Crux of Leadership - Hugh Busher Shaping School Culture by Contesting the Policy Contexts and Practices of Teaching and Learning Working with Teaching Assistants - Hilary Cremin, Gary Thomas and Karen Vincett Three Models Evaluated Achievement of Black Caribbean Pupils - Feyisa DemieGood Practice in Lambeth SchoolsAn Unconventional Setting for a Conventional Occasion - Jon Driessen and Julene Newland PyferA Case Study of an Experimental Adult Education Program Teaching as Research - Eleanor Duckworth The Puzzle of Inclusion - Philip FergusonA Case Study of Autistic Students in the Life of One High School′A Few of the Brightest, Cleanest Mexican Children′ - David García, Tara Yosso and Frank BarajasSchool Segregation as a Form of Mundane Racism in Oxnard, California, 1900-1940 Julie′s Approach - S. Hart et alAccess, Security and SuccessA Dialogic Inquiry Approach to Working with Teachers in Developing Classroom Dialogue - Sara Hennessy, Paul Warwick and Neil Mercer Theory in Initial Teacher Education - Chris HolliganStudents′ Perspectives on Its Utility - a Case Study Lessons and Dilemmas Derived from the Literacy Instruction of Two Latina/o Teachers - Robert Jimenez and Russell Gersten Understanding Reading Disability - Peter Johnston A Case Study ApproachThe Making of the Inclusive School - G. Thomas, D. Walker and J. WebbExtract from Learning to Labour - P. WillisLearning to Laugh - Travis Wright A Portrait of Risk and Resilience in Early ChildhoodThe School and Community - H.F. Wolcott

Being of a nervous disposition as a child, Gary Thomas failed to write anything on his 11-plus examination paper, which inaction took him to secondary modern school. He eventually became a teacher, then an educational psychologist, then a professor of education at the University of Birmingham, where his teaching, research and writing have focused on inclusive education and the methods used in social science research. He has led a wide range of research projects and has received research funding from the AHRC, the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Department for Education, charities such as Barnardo’s and the Cadmean Trust, local authorities and a range of other organisations. He has written or edited 30 books, lots of boring academic articles, and quite interesting essays on the state of education in the national press. He was the editor of journals such as the British Educational Research Journal and Educational Review.He has two grown-up daughters, one daughter at school, and two grandchildren. He likes, in alphabetical order, birds, chess, cycling, dogs, his family, gardening, reading and writing.Despite supporting Aston Villa football club, he maintains an optimistic outlook on life.

Select Guide Rating

• VOLUME ONE: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES AROUND THE USE OF CASE STUDIES IN SOCIAL SCIENCEDo Physicists Use Case Studies? Thoughts on Public Administration Research - Mary Timney Bailey Cases, Causes, Conjunctures, Stories, Imagery - Howard BeckerInforming Generality and Explaining Uniqueness - York Bradshaw and Michael Wallace The Place of Case Studies in Comparative ResearchThe Narrative Construction of Reality - Jerome Bruner Observation, Context and Sequence in the Study of Politics - Richard FennoFive Misunderstandings about Case Study Research - Bent FlyvbjergThe Issue of Quality in Qualitative Research - Martyn HammersleyIntroduction - Martyn Hammersley and Roger Gomm Case Studies as Natural Experiments - Allen LeeComparative Politics and the Comparative Method - Arend Lijphart′Case Study′ in American Methodological Thought - Jennifer Platt Introduction - Charles RaginCases of ′What Is a case?′How Narratives Explain - Paul RothPersuasion with Case Studies - Nicolaj SiggelkowA Typology for the Case Study in Social Science Following a Review of Definition, Discourse and Structure - Gary ThomasDoing Case Study - Gary Thomas Abduction not Induction; Phronesis not Theory Redefining Case Study - Rob Van Wynsberghe and Samia KhanCase Studies - Michel WieviorkaHistory or Sociology?VOLUME TWO: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES AROUND THE USE OF CASE STUDIES IN EDUCATIONBread and Dreams or Bread and Circuses? A Critique of ′Case Study′ Research in Education - Paul Atkinson and Sara DelamontEducational Research and Inter-Textual Forms of (Re) Presentation - Carl Bagley and Mary Beth CancienneThe Case for Dancing the DataPedagogic Research - Michael BasseyOn the Relative Merits of Search for Generalization and Study of Single Events Pedagogic Research into Singularities - Michael BasseyCase Studies, Probes and Curriculum Innovations Making the Case - David GarvinProfessional Education for the World of Practice The Imagination of the Case and the Invention of the Study - Stephen Kemmis This Is Your Father′s Paradigm - Patti LatherGovernment Intrusion and the Case of Qualitative Research in Education Case Study and the Social Philosophy of Educational Research - Barry MacDonald and Rob WalkerIn Search of Subjectivity - One′s Own - Alan PeshkinEthics of Case Study in Educational Research and Evaluation - Helen Simons The Paradox of Case Study - Helen SimonsAn Evolving Logic of Participant Observation, Educational Ethnography and Other Case Studies - Louis Smith The Case Study Method in Social Inquiry - Robert StakeCase Study and Case Records - Lawrence Stenhouse Towards a Contemporary History of EducationThe Study of Samples and the Study of Cases - Lawrence StenhouseThe Case - Gary ThomasGeneralization and Theory in Case Study Three Good Reasons for not Doing Case Studies in Curriculum Research - Rob WalkerCase Study, Case Records and Multimedia - Rob WalkerVOLUME THREE: THE CASE STUDY IN PRACTICE - GENERAL ISSUES AND SPECIFIC EXAMPLESAfter Cultural Competency - Peter Benson and Kedron Thomas Research Practice and Moral Experience in the Study of Brand Pirates and Tobacco Farmers The Last People Alive - J. Diamond Pitcairn and Henderson IslandsTheory -Building from Cases - Kathleen Eisenhardt and Melissa GraebnerOpportunities and Challenges Extract from Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud Deep Play - Clifford GeertzNotes on the Balinese Cockfight Phase One - A.L. George and A. Bennett Designing Case Study ResearchWhat Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for? - John GerringA Case for Case Studies in Social Work Research - Jane Gilgun First Developments of the Young Savage of Aveyron - J.M.G. ItardFrom Interview to Story - Christine Elizabeth KiesingerWriting Abbie′s Life Case and Situation Analysis - J.Clyde Mitchell The First Night - J. PatrickParticipatory Photography - Esther Prins A Tool for Empowerment or Surveillance?Embodiment, Academics and the Audit Culture - Andrew SparkesA Story Seeking ConsiderationWhat Is a Case Study? - Gary Thomas Extract from ′The Polish Peasant in Europe and America′ - W.I. Thomas and F. ZnanieckiVOLUME FOUR: EXAMPLES OF CASE STUDIES IN EDUCATIONAdolescents, Social Life and School Life - S.J. Ball′Five on the First of December!′ - Liz BrookerWhat Can We Learn from Case Studies of Early Childhood Literacy? The Crux of Leadership - Hugh Busher Shaping School Culture by Contesting the Policy Contexts and Practices of Teaching and Learning Working with Teaching Assistants - Hilary Cremin, Gary Thomas and Karen Vincett Three Models Evaluated Achievement of Black Caribbean Pupils - Feyisa DemieGood Practice in Lambeth SchoolsAn Unconventional Setting for a Conventional Occasion - Jon Driessen and Julene Newland PyferA Case Study of an Experimental Adult Education Program Teaching as Research - Eleanor Duckworth The Puzzle of Inclusion - Philip FergusonA Case Study of Autistic Students in the Life of One High School′A Few of the Brightest, Cleanest Mexican Children′ - David García, Tara Yosso and Frank BarajasSchool Segregation as a Form of Mundane Racism in Oxnard, California, 1900-1940 Julie′s Approach - S. Hart et alAccess, Security and SuccessA Dialogic Inquiry Approach to Working with Teachers in Developing Classroom Dialogue - Sara Hennessy, Paul Warwick and Neil Mercer Theory in Initial Teacher Education - Chris HolliganStudents′ Perspectives on Its Utility - a Case Study Lessons and Dilemmas Derived from the Literacy Instruction of Two Latina/o Teachers - Robert Jimenez and Russell Gersten Understanding Reading Disability - Peter Johnston A Case Study ApproachThe Making of the Inclusive School - G. Thomas, D. Walker and J. WebbExtract from Learning to Labour - P. WillisLearning to Laugh - Travis Wright A Portrait of Risk and Resilience in Early ChildhoodThe School and Community - H.F. Wolcott