DATA

ANALYSIS IN
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
 GETTING STARTED?

• Are you ready to conduct a qualitative study involving…

• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Observations
• Document or artifact analysis
• Journal notes or reflections?
 WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS
DATA?
Just as there are numerous statistical tests to
run for quantitative data, there are just as
many options for qualitative data analysis…
 OVERVIEW
This session is designed to provide a step-by-
step guide for beginning qualitative
researchers…who want to know how to
apply the appropriate strategies for data
analysis, interpretation, and reporting.
 LIKE CLEANING A CLOSET ???
Think of managing your
qualitative analysis process like
cleaning your closets – the
same basic steps apply!
 IT’S THE SAME PROCESS…
1. Take everything out of the closet
2. Sort everything out – save or toss?
3. Look at what you have left and organize into sub-groupings
(chunking)
4. Organize sub-groups into clusters of similar things that belong
together (clusters, codes)
5. As you put things back, how would you group them to maximize
functionality? How do the groups make it work together?
(interpretation, presentation)
 FOUR BASIC STEPS

All qualitative data analysis involves the same four essential

steps:
1. Raw data management- ‘data cleaning’
2. Data reduction, I, II – ‘chunking’, ‘coding’
3. Data interpretation – ‘coding’, ‘clustering’
4. Data representation – ‘telling the story’,
‘making sense of the data for others’
 WHAT IS DATA ANALYSIS?

• A complex process that involves moving back and

forth
• between concrete bits of data and abstract
concepts
• between inductive and deductive reasoning
• between description and interpretation
• Simply put: Data analysis is the process of making
meaning from the data
 PRELIMINARY EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS

• Explore the data by reading through all of your information

to obtain a general sense of the information
• Memo ideas while thinking about the organization of the data
and considering whether more data are needed
• Jot memos in margins of fieldnotes, transcripts,
documents, photos
DATA ANALYSIS SPIRAL #1
Practical Research I
Practical Research I
DEVELOPING DESCRIPTIONS & THEMES
FROM THE DATA (CASE STUDY APPROACH)

• Coding data
• Developing a description from the data
• Defining themes from the data
• Connecting and interrelating themes
 CODING DATA
• Open Coding
• Assign a code word or phrase that accurately
describes the meaning of the text segment
• Line-by-line coding is done first in theoretical
research
• More general coding involving larger segments of
text is adequate for practical research (action
research)
Practical Research I
 AXIAL CODING

• The process of looking for categories that cut

across all data sets
• After this type of coding, you have identified your
themes
• You can’t classify something as a theme unless it
cuts across the preponderance of the data
Practical Research I
 PRELIMINARY ORGANIZING SCHEME

• Take this new list of codes and go back to the data

• Reduce this list to codes to get 5 to 7 themes or
descriptions
• Themes are similar codes aggregated together to form a
major idea in the database
• Identify the 5-7 themes by constantly comparing the data
(Constant Comparative Analysis)
 CONSTANT COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS (GLASER &
STRAUSS; P. 86, THE ART OF CLASSROOM INQUIRY)

• A process whereby the data gradually evolve into a core of

emerging theory
• This core is a theoretical framework that further guides the
collection of data
• Major modifications are lessened as comparisons of the
next incidents of a category to its properties are carried out
(Merriam, 1998).
 WHY THEMES?

• It is best to write a qualitative report providing

detailed information about a few themes rather than
general information about many themes
• Themes can also be referred to as Categories
 NAMING THE THEMES OR CATEGORIES

• The names can come from at least three sources:

• The researcher
• The participants
• The literature
• Most common: when the researcher comes up with terms,
concepts, and categories that reflect what he or she sees in
the data
 THEMES SHOULD…

• Reflect the purpose of the research

• Be exhaustive--you must place all data in a category
• Be sensitizing--should be sensitive to what is in the data
• i.e.,“leadership” vs.“charismatic leadership”
• Be conceptually congruent--the same level of abstraction
should characterize all categories at the same level
• For instance, you wouldn’t have produce, canned goods,
and fruit
 TYPES OF THEMES

• Ordinary: themes a researcher expects

• Unexpected: themes that are surprises and not expected to
surface
• Hard-to-classify: themes that contain ideas that do not easily
fit into one theme or that overlap with several themes
• Major & minor themes: themes that represent the major
ideas, or minor, secondary ideas in a database
• Minor themes fit under major themes in the write up
 A DESCRIPTION

• A detailed rendering of people, places, or events in a

setting in qualitative research
• Codes such as “seating arrangements,” “teaching
approach,” or “physical layout of the room,” might all
be used to describe a classroom where instruction
takes place.
 NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION

• From the coding and the themes, construct a

narrative description and possibly a visual
display of the findings for your research
report
 CONSTRUCTING THE NARRATIVE

• Identify dialogue that provides support for themes

• Look for dialogue in the participants’ own dialect
• Use metaphors and analogies
• Collect quotes from interview data or observations
• Locate multiple perspectives & contrary evidence
• Look for vivid detail
• Identify tensions and contradictions in individual
experiences
 CONVEYING PERSONAL
REFLECTIONS

Because qualitative researchers believe that personal views can never

be kept separate from interpretations, personal reflections about the
meaning of the data are included in the research study
• “David had been diagnosed with AD/HD and also with mild Tourette
Syndrome. He took medication for AD/HD. He was selected to participate in
the project as a confirming participant because he was so involved with the
project and so intense during the first observation. Unaware that he had
AD/HD and Tourette Syndrome until I interviewed his mother during the
second year of the project, I was surprised because he was the most focused
student in the classroom.”(Terry, 2003)
 PROVIDING VISUAL DATA DISPLAYS

• Qualitative researchers often display their findings visually

• Comparison table or matrix
• Hierarchical tree diagram that represents themes and their
connections
• Boxes that show connections between themes
• Physical layout of the setting
• Personal or demographic information for each person or site
 Practical Research I

MAKING COMPARISONS WITH

THE LITERATURE
• Interpret the data in view of past research
• Show how the findings both support and contradict
prior studies
• “These findings are consistent with other studies in regard to
duration. It has been found that the length or duration of
service learning projects has an impact on student outcomes,
with the longer duration projects having greater impacts.
However, significant differences are not found in projects
lasting over 18 weeks (Conrad & Hedin, 1981). The project on
which this study focused was examined over a year and a half
period of time; thus it is considered to be long in duration
which helps to explain its impact on student outcomes.”
VALIDATING THE ACCURACY OF FINDINGS

At the end, the qualitative researcher validates the finding by

determining the accuracy or credibility of the findings. Methods
include:
• Prolonged engagement & persistent observation in the field
• Triangulation
• Peer Review
• Clarifying researcher bias
• Member Checking
• Rich, thick description
• External Audit
 RAW DATA SAMPLE

• I always wanted to get my doctorate but I never felt I had the time; then I reached a
point in my career where I saw that without the credentials, I would never advance to
the types of positions I aspired to..but I doubted I could do the work. I wasn’t sure I
could go back to school after so much time. And did I have the time, with working and
a family? These were the things I struggled with as I looked for the right program.
• Are some portions of this transcript unusable or
• Um, ..finally starting the program with others like me, it felt surreal. Once you switch irrelevant? (purple)
gears from being an established administrator at a college to being a doc student, you
realize you lose control over your life. You are not in charge in that classroom, like
you are in your office. But also, once you say you are a doc student, people look at
you differently. And people at work began to take me more seriously, ask for my
opinion as if I now possessed special knowledge because I was going for the doctorate.
It was the same information I had shared previously but somehow it had a special
quality? Its like magic!
Raw Data Overview
• I can’t think of a particular example right now…

Transcript of Interview
Data
THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ACADEMIC
INDULGENCE ☺