QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
Introduction
We now need to analyse the data from our qualitative research
study in order to make sense of it and to make accessible to the
researcher (and people who read the report of the research) the large amount of
rich textual data that has been generated.
Data analysis consists of:
- examining,
- categorising,
- tabulating,
- recombining,
the evidence obtained from the research.
All this is concerned with the organisation and the interpretation
of information (other than numerical information, which is generally the
preserve of quantitative research) in order to discover any important
underlying patterns and trends.
Analysis
Qualitative data analysis involves such processes
as coding (open, axial, and selective), categorising and
making sense of the essential meanings of the phenomenon.
As the researcher works/lives with the rich descriptive data, then
common themes or essences begin to emerge.
This stage of analysis basically involves total immersion for as
long as it is needed in order to ensure both a pure and a thorough description
of the phenomenon.
All this is concerned with the organisation and the interpretation
of information (other than numerical information, which is generally the
preserve of quantitative research] in order to discover any important
underlying patterns and trends.
However, each type of qualitative research requires slightly
different methods of data analysis:
The constant comparative method
The constant comparative method is the process that we use in
qualitative research in which any newly collected data is compared with previously collected data
that was collected in an earlier study.
This is a continuous ongoing procedure, because theories are
formed, enhanced, confirmed, or even discounted as a result of any new data
that emerges from the study.
A way in which data can be constantly compared throughout a
research study is by means of coding:
- open coding - open coding
is the first organisation of the data to try to make some sense of it
- axial coding - axial
coding is a way of interconnecting the categories
- selective coding - selective
coding is the building of a story that connects the categories
At the end of these processes, it is hoped that one has achieved
the production of a set of theoretical propositions (i.e. a theory to explain
both the data and what is actually happening).
Summary
Qualitative data analysis is the process in
which we move from the raw data that have been collected as part of the
research study and use it to provide explanations, understanding and
interpretation of the phenomena, people and situations which we are studying.
The aim of analysing qualitative data is to
examine the meaningful and symbolic content of that which is found within. What
we are aiming for is to try to identify and understand such concepts,
situations and ideas as:
- A person’s interpretation of the world/situation in which
they find themselves at any given moment.
- How they come to have that point of view of their situation
or environment in which they find themselves.
- How they relate to others within their world.
- How they cope within their world.
- Their own view of their history and the history of others who
share their own experiences and situations.
- How they identify and see themselves and others who share
their own experiences and situations.
It is important that before you decide upon your
method of data analysis, you become very familiar and confident in your chosen
field. The advice given throughout this web programme is to seek help and
advice if you are not absolutely certain of what you should be doing, and this
advice is reiterated here.
Having taken all that on board, now it is time to decide upon the
method of data analysis that you are going to use in your own research proposal. This, of course, will
in many ways be dictated by the methodology and data collection methods that
you have already decided upon.
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