Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e 8.1 Chapter 8 Data Analysis and Representation

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

8.1

Chapter 8

Data Analysis

and

Representation


8.2

Key Questions• What are the common data analysis

strategies used in qualitative research?• How might the overall data analysis

process be conceptualized in qualitative research?

• What are specific data analysis procedures used within each approach to inquiry, and how do they differ?

• What are the procedures available in qualitative computer analysis programs, and how would these procedures differ by approaches to qualitative inquiry?

Three Analysis StrategiesAnalytic Strategy Madison (2005)

Huberman & Miles (1994) Wolcott (1994b)

Sketching ideas Write margin notes in fieldnotes

Highlight certain information in description

Taking notes Write reflective passages in notes

Summarize field notes

Draft a summary sheet on fieldnotes

Getting feedback on ideas

Working with words

Make metaphors

Identify codes Abstract coding or concrete coding

Write codes, memos

Reduce codes into themes

Identify salient themes or patterns

Note patterns and themes

Identify patterned regularities


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Three Analysis Strategies (cont.)Analytic Strategy Madison (2005)

Huberman & Miles (1994) Wolcott (1994b)

Count frequency of codes

Count frequency of codes

Relating categories

Factoring, noting relations among variables, building a logical chain of evidence

Relate to analytic framework in literature

Contextualize in framework from literature

Create a point of view

For scenes, audience, readers

Display the data Create a graph or picture of the framework

Make contrasts and comparisons

Display findings in tables, charts, diagrams, and figures; compare cases; compare with a standard

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e8.4

The Data Analysis SpiralAccountAccount

Data Collection (text, images)Data Collection (text, images)

Files,Units,Organize

DataManaging

ReadingMemoing

ReflectingWriting notesAcross questions

Context,CategoriesComparisons

Matrix, treesPropositions

DescribingClassifyingInterpreting

RepresentingVisualizing

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e 8.5


8.6

Data Management

• Organize data into file folders or computer files

• Make back-up copies of the data• Construct an organizational plan so that

the data is easy to locate• Convert files into text units (e.g., word,

sentence, story)• Computer programs can facilitate data

management and storage of data

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8.7

Reading and Memoing

• Read entire transcripts several times to get an overall meaning

• Make notes in the margins of transcripts, field-notes or photographs as you read to note key phrases, ideas, or concepts

• These notes can become part of the database for analysis


8.8

Describing, Classifying, and Interpreting

• Code the data to describe the context of the setting

• Develop codes or categories that describe what is being talked about or seen in a visual image (e.g., photograph)– Develop only about 25-50 codes (“lean

coding”)– Codes can be counted to see how frequently

they appear in the data– Preexisting or a priori codes can sometimes

come from the literature– Codes can originate from the researcher or

can be in vivo codes which are the exact words of the participants

,


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• Code segments to look for– Codes that represent information that

researchers expect to find before the study– Codes that represent surprising information

the researchers did not expect to find– Codes that represent information that is

conceptually interesting or unusual to researchers

• Use codes to develop larger themes– Themes are the broad general ideas that

come from the coding process– Limit themes to 5-7 that have sub-themes to

support the themes (“winnowing the data”)


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Describing, Classifying, and Interpreting • Using a postmodern perspective, theme

may be formed during data analysis to:– Dismantle a dichotomy to expose a false

distinction– Examine silences noting who or what is excluded– Attend to disruptions and contradictions to learn

where the texts fail to make sense– Focus on the element most peculiar to the text– Interpret metaphors as a rich source for multiple

meanings– Analyze double entendres that point to an

unconscious subtext– Separate group-specific and more general

sources of bias by reconstructing the text with substitution of its main elements


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• All qualitative research is interpretive.• Interpretation of the data involves making

sense of the data– It is based on researcher hunches– It can be based on social science constructs– It can be based on personal views that are

contrasted with social science constructs• The process of interpretation involves

forming larger meanings of what is happening in the situations or sites

• Post modern and interpretive researchers view these interpretations as tentative, inconclusive, and questioning

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8.12

Representing, Visualizing• Researchers package the findings as text,

tables, or figures– Matrix tables can be used to compare men

and women in terms of themes or categories– Tree or hierarchical diagrams can be used to

represent the levels of abstraction in the analysis

– Axial coding diagrams in grounded theory studies illustrate the parts in the process being studied

– Hypotheses or propositions in grounded theory studies specify the relationships among the categories


8.13

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Narrative (Clandinin & Connelly 2000)

• Analysis centers on the story to be told– Chronology– Epiphanies (turning points)

• Options for analysis– Focus on the five elements of plot structure

(characters, setting, problem, actions, and resolution)

– Three dimensional space approach focusing on interaction (personal and social), continuity (past, present, future), and situation (physical places or the storytellers’ places)‘ ‘‘


8.14

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Narrative

• Common elements to both approaches– Collecting personal stories– Retelling stories based on narrative elements

such as the five elements approach or three dimensional space approach

– Rewriting the story into a chronological sequence

– Incorporating the setting or place of the participant’s experiences


8.15


• Identifying life experiences in biographical research (Denzin 1989b)– The participant constructs a journal or sketch of

his or her life– The researcher looks for life-course stages or

experiences to develop a chronology– The researcher looks for contextual materials– The researcher asks the participant to expand

on sections of stories and theorize about his or her life


8.16


• Identifying life experiences in biographical research (cont.)– The narrative segments and categories are

isolated and meanings are determined– The researcher reconstructs the story and

identifies the factors that have shaped the life– The final case includes the processes of the

individual’s life, the theories that relate to these life experiences, and unique and general features of life


8.17

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Phenomenology (Moustakas 1994)

• The researcher describes personal experiences with the phenomenon (bracketing)

• Develop a list of significant statements that are non-overlapping and have equal worth about how individuals are experiencing the topic (horizonalization)


8.18


• Collapse the statements into meaning units or themes

• Write a description of what the participants in the study have experienced (textual description)


8.19


• Write a description of how the experience happened (structural description)

• Write a composite description of the phenomenon that incorporates both the textual and structural descriptions– This is the essence of the experience– It is the culmination of the study– It is a long paragraph that tells the reader what

the participants experienced with the phenomenon and how or in what context they experienced it


8.20

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin 1998)

• Open coding– Researcher examines and codes the text and

develops categories– Researcher attempts to saturate the

categories– Researcher dimensionalizes the categories by

creating subcategories called properties that represent multiple perspectives on the categories and presents the dimensionalized categories on a continuum typically in a table that contains each of the dimensionalized categories


8.21

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin 1998)

• Axial coding– Researcher identifies a single category from

the open coding list as the central phenomenon of interest (central category)

– Researcher uses the remaining categories to form a coding paradigm consisting of the causal conditions, intervening conditions, context, strategies, and consequences that relate to the central category

– The coding paradigm presents a theoretical paradigm of the process that is being studied

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Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin 1998)• Selective coding

– The researcher creates a conditional matrix based on the axial coding paradigm (This is seldom seen in studies)

– This matrix is used to help the researcher visualize the range of conditions and consequences related to the phenomenon

– The researcher generates propositions (hypotheses) from the theory. These hypotheses could be tested using empirically quantitative methods

– The researcher forms a storyline connecting the categories


8.23

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Ethnography (Wolcott 1994b)

• Description– Describe the culture-sharing group and setting– Present the facts without interpretation– Present the facts in an interesting way– Can chronicle a day in the life of the group or

individual– Can focus on a critical or key event or develop

a story complete with plots and characters that can focus in the interaction between groups or showing different perspectives through the viewpoints of the participants


8.24


• Analysis– Sorting through the materials– Developing a description, identifying themes

(searching for patterned regularities), and making interpretation

– Building taxonomies and comparison tables– Comparing cultural groups to others or

evaluating the group according to standards– Connecting the culture-sharing group and

broader theoretical frameworks


8.25


• Interpretation– The researcher probes the question, How

does the culture-sharing group work?– The researcher goes beyond the data to draw

inferences from the data or turns to theory to provide structure for interpretations

– The researcher personalizes interpretations– The researcher may also develop an

interpretation though poetry, fiction, or performance


8.26

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Case Study (Stake 1995)

• Description of the case and its setting– If there is a chronology of events, find

evidence for each step– Determine how the case or incident fits into

the larger situation

• Approaches to analysis and interpretation– Categorical aggregation: the researcher

collects instances from the data to look for issue-relevant meanings

– Direct interpretation: the researcher looks at a single instance and draws meaning from it


8.27

Analysis Within the Approaches to Inquiry: Case Study (Stake 1995)

• Approaches to analysis and interpretation– Cross-case analysis: the research studies two

or more cases to look for similarities between the two

– Naturalistic generalizations: the researcher notes what can be learned for individuals or a larger population from the case


8.28

Computer Use in Qualitative Data Analysis

• Advantages of using qualitative analysis software– provides a means to store data– provides an organized filing system– Helps the researcher locate material easily– Allows the researcher to look at the data more

closely– The researcher can visualize the relationship

among codes and themes with concept mapping features

– Memos can be created, associated with codes and themes, and can easily be retrieved


8.29

Computer Use in Qualitative Data Analysis

• Disadvantages of using qualitative analysis software– Time must be spent learning the software – Perceived discomfort introduced by the computer

between the researcher and data– Perception that the data and organizational

structures are set by the software and can’t be changed

– Software documentation is sometimes confusing– Some programs may not have the features the

researcher needs


8.30

Common Packages Available

• NVivo7: (www.qsrinternational.com)• Atlas.ti: (www.atlasti.com)• HyperRESEARCH (

www.researchware.com) • Ethnograph: (www.qualisresearch.com) • Qualrus: (www.qualrus.com) • MAXqda (www.maxqda.com)

http://www.qsrinternational.com/products/productoverview/NVivo_7.htm

http://www.qsrinternational.com/products/productoverview/NVivo_7.htm

http://www.researchware.com/



http://www.qualrus.com/






http://www.maxqda.com/




Comparing Software PackagesBASIC FEATURES

ATLAS.TI NVIVO HYPERRESEARCH MAXQDA2

Platform Windows Windows Mac/Windows

Windows

Import text files X X X X

Import image files X X X X

Import audio and video files

X X X

Concept mapping X X X X

Allows for team work

X X X X

Export report to Excel or SPSS

X Text file Text file X

Memoing X X X X

Drag and drop coding

X X X X

Text searching X X X X8.31



8.32

Ways Computer Programs Facilitate Qualitative Data Analysis

• Helps store and organize data• Helps locate text or image segments• Helps locate quotes or segments

associated with codes in large databases

• Facilitates comparing codes


8.33

Ways Computer Programs Facilitate Qualitative Data Analysis

• Facilitates forming themes• Creates a visual concept map of

themes and codes• Facilitates writing, storing and

attaching memos• Helps create a template that fits the

analysis


8.34

Chapter 8

Data Analysis

and

Representation

Documents

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e 8.1 Chapter 8 Data Analysis and Representation