Saturday 9 April 2016

Analysing interview data and coding!

Just checking in to see who else is coding their qualitative data and how they are going about it?

I found a useful resource - 'The coding manual for qualitative researchers' by Johnny Saldaña.  He explains comprehensively the focus of coding and also the many different methods to go about it.   It also made me realise there will be differences of opinion on how to code an interview as it is underlined my personal opinion on what are the most significant themes, phrases etc.
‘A code in qualitative inquiry is most often a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data’ (Saldana, 2013).

Another reference which has helped in the process of analysing has been Mason's 'Qualitative researching'.  'The answers to questions about how and what to compare must be driven by your research questions and your intellectual puzzle, but also are likely to be influenced by the ideas and theories you develop in the process of generating and analysing data'.  This was helpful as what I have found is that what has come from the research is that I've questioned certain areas I didn't foresee, and now have opinions I would like to explore further that I had never thought of before,   So, the coding process as part of analysing can only begin now I have had a chance to really process the findings.   It hasn't been until I have listened back a few times to the interview that I notice opinions and ideas I may have ignored the first time.  Those nuances have helped me find important themes that have arisen.  

In Saldana's guide he speaks about the possibility of having a theme, and a secondary theme, like a sub title that can be used in parallel.  I've adopted this method as i had broad themes and more subtle phrases or ideas that lay under the same idea, but were slightly different in opinion, or emotion for example.


This was a first draft to work out my understanding


This is how the coding matrix will look, with themes above and then sub headings




1 comment:

  1. Thanks Catherine - I went to a very useful research methods course recently - that simplified constructivist research as being for 'understanding' like your coding to see the data and to capture the emerging themes - so your interpretation of what others have said - thanks for putting this process up!

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