QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

A/Professor Denis McLaughlin

School of Educational Leadership

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS You have a book of readings with relevant extracts from the following books.

They must be read 1. Dey, I (1993) Qualitative data analysis, London: Routledge 2. Miles, M & Huberman, A (1984). Qualitative data analysis, Newbury park:

Sage 3. Miles, M & Huberman, A (1994). Qualitative data analysis : An expanded

source book (2nd edition), Thousand Oakes: Sage 4. Coffey, A. & Atkinson, P.(1996).Making sense of qualitative data,

Thousand Oaes: Sage 5. Marshall, C. & Rossman, G. (1989).Designing qualitative research.

Newbury Park: Sage 6. Tesch, R. (1990). Qualitative research, New York: Falmer Press 7. Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design, Thousand

Oaks: Sage 8. Creswell, J. (2002). Analyzing and interpreting qualitative data (pp256-

283). In J Creswell, Educational research, Thousand Oaks: Sage 9. Maykut, P. & Morehouse, R. (1994) Qualitative data analysis: using the

constant comparative method , In P. Maykut & R. Morehouse, Beginning qualitative research, London Falmer Press

RESEARCH STRATEGY IDENTIFICATION RESEARCH PROBLEM

RESEARCH PURPOSE

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

ISSUES TO BE EXPLORED

APPROPRIATE TECHNIQUES

OVERVIEW OF QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

Data Collection

Data display

Data reduction

Conclusions: drawing / verifying

(Miles & Huberman, 1984; 1994)

INTERACTIVE PROCESS OF DATA ANALYSIS Data collection

Data display

Reflection on Data

Data Coding

Generation of Themes

Story interpretation

Research Conclusions

SIMULTANEOUS

ITERATIVE

Data distillation (reduction

QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS (Dey, 1993)

describing

Classifying Connecting

Qualitative analysis as an iterative spiral Dey, 1993

DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES In this section of your Design chapter mention the

following characteristics of the process Data analysis is an eclectic process (Tesch,1990)

1. Occurs simultaneously and iterative with data collection, data interpretation and report writing (Creswell, 2002; Miles & Huberman, 1984)

2. Is based on the on data reduction and interpretation -decontextualisation & recontextualisation (Marshall & Rossman, 1989; Tesch, 1990)

2. Data Analysis Procedures

3. Represents information in matrices-displays of information , spatial format that presents information systematically to reader

3. (Miles and Huberman, 1984) A I page example of this must be placed in this chapter eventually

• Display categories by informants, sites and other … • Tables of tabular information showing relationships among

categories of information

4. Identifies the coding procedure to be used to reduce information to themes / categories (Read Tesch, 1990, pp142-145).

Categorisation and Themes

1. Constant comparative content analysis 2. Themes generated from the literature review 3. Themes embedded in instrument questions 4. Themes embedded in research questions 5. Combination of any of above

DATA ORGANISATION(Miles & Huberman, 1994)

DEVELOP MATRICES : VISUAL IMAGES OF INFORMATION

Comparison tables –themes, participants, sites Heirarchical trees visually representing themes &

their relations Figures in boxes to indicate the processes, time

sequence, evolution of themes Organising the data by type interviews, observations, documents

Organising by participants or sites combinations See Michael Dredge’s Power point at the end of this sequence on this issue

DATA ANALYSIS

MANUAL LESS THAN 500 PAGES OF TRANSCRIPTS OR FIELD NOTES WANT TO “FEEL” CLOSE TO DATA CANNOT AFFORD TO HAVE ALL INTERVIEWS TRANSCRIBED (4 HRS TO TRANSCRIBE 1 HR TAPE INTERVIEW)

COMPUTER

MORE THAN 500 PAGES OF DATA CAN AFFORD PROGRAM AND TRANSCRIBER ATLAS.ti QSR N5 (NUD8IST 5.0) NVivo Ethnograph WinMAX HyperResearch

CODING DATA (see Tesch, pp142 -145)

1. Get sense of whole: read all carefully 2. Pick one document “what is its underlying meaning” write thoughts themes in margin 3. Do this for several informants; Cluster together similar topics; arrange topics into major topics, unique topics, left overs 4. Revisit data with topics; Abbreviate the topics as codes; Re-analyse. Do new codes emerge? 5. Turn topics into themes 6. Reduce number of themes by grouping similar themes 7. Diagrammatize the basics of the numbers 5 & 6 8. Finalise abbreviations- alphabetise codes 9. Perform preliminary analysis on material belonging to each theme 10. If necessary, recode existing data Always include in your design chapter a page of text (exhibit 4.x) illustrating the how you code the text

Read text data

Divide text into segments of information

Code segments

Reduce Codes

Collapse codes into themes

Many pages of texts

Many segments of texts

30 – 40 codes

Codes reduced to 20

Codes reduced to 5 -7 themes

CODING PROCESS (Creswell, 2002)

(Matrix example)

Description of Data Analysis (Matrix example)

Initial data analysis

Major and minor topics

Theme 1 Theme 2 Theme 3 Theme 4

Final interpretation

In your analysis chapter you would present a diagram such as this at the beginning but with actual contextual material to illustrate the flow of your analysis. You would “flag” this overview in your Design chapter and refer specifically to it

Stage 1 Data collection, display reflection Stage 2 Data coding & distillation

Stage 3

Generation of key themes Stage 4 Story report & conclusions

Data Collection Techniques

Stages for Data Collection (Matrix example)

Exploratory Phase

Step 1a: Initial Exploratory Survey – Conducted in 1998 1st Visit to PNG; Meet various stakeholders – SSSP graduates, personnel from tertiary institutions, NDOE, parents etc

Step 1b: Analyze responses for trends and patterns

Step 2: Select stratified sample from step 1 according to predetermined criteria for individual interviews •recipients in employment •recipients at universities •recipients at vocational institutions

Individual In-depth Interviews Focus Groups

Step 3: Interview selected sample

Step 4: Focus groups at universities and colleges

Step 5: Analyse data collected in step 3 and 4

Step 6: Interview selected officials, personnel from tertiary institutions, employers, parents & guardians

Documentary & Final analysis

Step 7: Analyse official interviews

Step 8: Analyse interviews of secondary sources

Step 9: Document analysis

Step 10 Final analysis