Qualitative Research

Topic : Analysis is Ongoing (P.272~290)

MA1C0109 Owen 楊勝雄

Analysis is Ongoing

Many methodological writers present

two options for formal analysis

First is ongoing analysis

Second is analysis at the end of data

gathering

No matter ongoing or toward the end,

keep in mind the following pointers to

facilitate analysis.

1. Refer regularly to your conceptual framework.

2. Keep your questions in mind.

3. Modify your data gathering based on what you are learning.

4. Write all the time.

5. Talk your ideas through with people.

6. Read and read and read.

7. Be creative.

In addition, practice good management skills is

very important for keeping the data organized

and accessible.

* Manage your data-don’t rely on your memory.

Categorical or Holistic Analysis

Qualitative methodologists recognize

two sets of overall analytic strategies.

Frist, emphasizing the development of analytic categories.

Second, focusing more on description.

Categorizing strategies-

Identify similarities and differences among

the data, coding and sorting them into

appropriate categories.

•These strategies require decision rules to

help guide the assignment to particular

categories.

Holistic strategies-

Describe connections among the data in the

actual context- a place, an event, a person’s

experience, a text.

* The result is a narrative portrait of an

individual or program.

Data connection

*Categorizing

*Seeking patterns and themes

Analysis is pattern identification over

awareness of detail.

Whatever strategies you use, the foundation

of analysis is thick description.

Thick description details physical

surroundings, time, and place, actions, events,

words, and people on the scene.

Thick description makes analysis and

interpretation possible.

Generic Analysis

Analytic procedures typically fall into the

Following seven phases:

* Organizing the data

* Familiarizing yourself with the data

* Generating categories and themes

* Coding the data

* Interpreting

* Searching for alternative understandings

* Writing the report

Each phase entails data condensation.

Data condensation

* Is the process of synthesizing

material into shorter formulations.

* Requires judgment about the salience

and power of data to tell the story.

* Is guided by purpose and the

conceptual framework.

Organizing the Data

As a preliminary step, inventory on note

cards the data that you have gathered.

Tools for organizing:

1. Note cards

2. Magic markers

3. Post-it notes

4. File folders

5. Software programs

Familiarizing yourself with the data

Have to read, reread and once more

read through the data.

Familiarize:

* Review and review the data

* Let the data incubate

* Review and review again

* Live with the data

* You have to know the data intimately-

there is no substitute for this.

Generating Categories and Themes

There is much confusion, especially among

beginners, about the difference between a

category and a theme.

Category-

As a word or phrase describing some

segment of your data that is explicit.

Categories provide direction for data

Gathering.

Theme-

Is a phrase or sentence describing more

subtle and tacit processes.

Theme often emerge during intensive

analysis as the researcher locates and

describes more subtle processes.

Thematic analysis typically emerges from

the deep familiarity with the data that

comes from categorizing.

Inductive analysis is one strategy to identify

salient categories within the data.

Indigenous categories are those

expressed by the participants;

the researcher discovers them through analysis of

how language is used.

Analyst-

Constructed categories do not necessary

correspond directly to the categories of

meaning used by the participants.

What is a theme?

Van Manen (1990) defines the concept as follows:

1. Theme is the experience of focus, of meaning,

of point.

2. Theme formulation is at best a simplification.

3. Themes are not objects one encounters at

certain points or moments in a text.

4. Theme is the form of capturing the

phenomenon one tries to understand.

Coding

Coding is the formal representation of analytic

thinking.

A code-

Is a word or short phrase that captures and

signals what is going on in a piece of data in

a way that links it to some more general

analysis issue.

* Mechanics of coding very, depending on

your style and what works for you.

Interpretation

Interpretation-

Means attaching significance to what was found,

making sense of findings, offering explanations,

drawing conclusions, extrapolating lessons,

making inferences, considering meanings and

otherwise imposing order.

Interpretation

* Requires the telling of a story

* Is not rule bound

* Depends on thick description

Kvale (1996) identifies three contexts of

interpretation:

1. Participants understanding

2. Commonsense understanding

3. Theoretical understanding

Searching for Alternative Understandings

Alternative understandings always exist:

You will need to search for, identify, and

describe them and then demonstrate how

your interpretation is sound, logical and

grounded in the data.

Alternative understandings

* What are other plausible interpretations?

* How does your argument stand up to these?

* Is your argument well supported by the data?

* Is your argument credible?

Part of this process is to assess the data for

their credibility, use-fulness, and centrality.

Writing the Report

For now, we turn to a brief discussion of three

Specific analysis strategies drawn from

Cognitive anthropology, phenomenology,

and narrative analysis for analyzing interview

data.

The interpretive process illuminates the

multiple meanings of events, objects,

activities, experiences and words.