Qualitative Data Analysis A primer Qualitative researchers are

Qualitative Data Analysis A primer

• Qualitative researchers are concerned primarily with practice and process (the How) rather than outcomes or products. Qualitative researcher focus on the process that is occurring, and the lived experiences of individuals.

• Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning – how people, language, classifications, and orders make sense of and structure experiences. Focus is on participants’ perceptions and experiences and the way they make sense of their lives. The attempt is therefore to understand not one, but multiple realities.

• The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis rather than some inanimate mechanism. Data are mediated through his human instrument, rather than through inventories, questionnaires, or machines.

Approaches to Qualitative Methods • • • Interview Focus Group Archival research Content Analysis/Coding Observation/Participant Observation Ethnography (a combination of the above)

Interviews (Choosing the Right Questions) In the qualitative interview the respondent provides information while the interviewer, as a representative of the study, is responsible for directing the respondent to the topics that matter to the study. Interviews are a conversational partnership

Interview do’s and don’ts. . . � � Do listen more and talk less Do follow up on what is not clear and probe more deeply into what is revealed Don’t use leading questions; do use open-ended questions (“probes”) probes Don’t interrupt; do wait

� Do keep interviewee(s) focused Do ask for concrete details � Do tolerate silence and space between interviewee’s responses; do allow the interviewee time to think � � Don’t be judgmental about or react to an interviewee’s opinions, views, or beliefs

Focus Groups • Allows a research to gain multiple perspectives in an interactive setting. • Focus Groups run on group dynamics • Provide opportunities for group brainstorming

Interviews vs. Focus Group Which is better? • Interviews are appropriate when you want to identify detailed perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes. • Interviews allow for the exploration of sensitive, embarrassing, or personal topics • Focus groups can help you explore the topic more broadly (an overview)

Ethnography • “Ethnography means literally “to write a people, to help construct a people’s identity by writing them” (Hess, 1992: 4). • Ethnography means participant observation, frequent and often informal interviews, and the cultivation of insiders known as ‘informants’.

Features of Ethnography • Ethnographic research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the people, setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior and events in its natural setting. • Prolonged engagement, longitudinal (‘immersion’, “going native”) in order to get to an in-depth understanding

Key to Ethnography • The description of the ordinary and taken-for-granted; objective: making the implicit explicit. • It uses the concept of culture as a lens through which to interpret results. • Sensitivity to the making of context: it perceives human behavior, perceptions and artifacts in light of the socialpolitical and historical context • Traditionally, fieldwork is done in a bounded, physical, setting (culture as local) • Awareness of the role of the researcher - the influence of the researcher in shaping the interactions, by being present (reflexive stand)

Products of Qualitative Research • Interview Transcripts (recordings) • Jottings • Field notes • Memos

Strategies for Coding (Miles et al) • • • Inductive Coding Deductive Coding In Vivo Coding Process Coding Emotion Coding Values Coding Evaluation Coding Dramaturgical Coding Holistic Coding Provisional Coding Hypothesis Coding

(Bhattacherjee) • Open Coding o Finding hidden concepts within the data (in vivo) o identifying, naming, categorizing and describing phenomena found in the text • Axial Coding o Categories and subcategories are assembled into causal relationship or hypotheses (finding relationships)…why something happens o relating codes (categories and properties) to each other, via a combination of inductive and deductive thinking • Selective Coding o Identify a key category and relating it to other categories o The essential idea is to develop a single storyline around which all everything else is draped.

Coding Your Data • Data analysis starts with reading all data repeatedly to achieve immersion and obtain a sense of the whole • Begin with some deductive codes from your conceptual framework • Derive extra codes from your data • Make notes of first impressions, thoughts, and initial analysis (jottings and memos) • Labels for codes will emerge • Codes then are sorted into categories (pattern coding)

Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Research • There are four alternate tests of quality that reflect the assumptions of the qualitative paradigm: o Credibility o Dependability o Transferability o Confirmability © 2007 Pearson Education Canada 6 -18

Alternate Tests of Quality Credibility refers to accuracy • Description must be plausible and recognized by participants Enhanced by: • Prolonged time in the field repeatedly observing and interacting with participants • Using different data sources, methods, data type • Conducting member checks o Involving other investigators in the study © 2007 Pearson Education Canada 6 -19

Alternate Tests of Quality Dependability refers to the stability and trackability of the changes in data over time and conditions • Want to determine the extent to which another researcher with similar training and rapport with participants would make the same observations • This is determined by an audit trail o Involves auditing research process, documenting all the raw data generated, and assessing method of data analysis © 2007 Pearson Education Canada 6 -20

Alternate Tests of Quality Transferability refers to the generalizability of the study findings to other settings, populations, and contexts • Report must provide sufficient detail so that readers can assess this • Lack of transferability is viewed as a weakness of qualitative methods © 2007 Pearson Education Canada 6 -21

Alternate Tests of Quality Confirmability refers to the objectivity of the data • Would another researcher agree about the meanings emerging from the data • An audit trail is used in which the researcher explicates how personal biases may have come into play © 2007 Pearson Education Canada 6 -22