Tsl3113 Topic 10 Qualitative Data Analysis.ppt 684w54

TOPIC 10 ACTION RESEARCH: DATA ANALYSIS

QUALITATIVE DATA 1

WHAT IS DATA ANALYSIS? 

A complex process that involves moving back and forth  between

concrete bits of data and abstract concepts  between inductive and deductive reasoning  between description and interpretation

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Simply put: Data analysis is the process of making meaning from the data

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ANALYSING DATA IN TRADITIONAL RESEARCH Analysis of data occurs primarily at two points during the process of a research study.  In traditional quantitative research studies, data analysis typically occurs following the completion of all data collection.  In traditional qualitative research studies, data analysis typically begins during data collection, continues throughout the remainder of the process of collecting data, and is completed following data collection. 

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ANALYSING DATA IN ACTION RESEARCH  Action

research combines these two approaches.  Johnson (2008) suggests that “as you collect your data, analyze them by looking for themes, categories, or patterns that emerge. This analysis will influence further data collection [and analysis] by helping you to know what to look for” (p. 63).  He continues by stating that there should also be a final stage of data analysis once everything has been collected. 4

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Is used to describe behaviours, actions, feelings, perceptions, and interaction among people  It assumes that respondents or people observed have unique views of their personal experiences or the surrounding environment.  Is used to help us understand lifestyles and cultural values, actions, and symbols. 

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6 STEPS IN THE PROCESS OF ANALYSING & INTERPRETING QUALITATIVE DATA (CRESSWELL, 2012, P236-263)

Prepare and Organise the data for analysis  Explore and Code the data  Coding to build Description and Themes  Represent and Report Qualitative Findings  Interpret the findings  Validate the Accuracy of the Findings 

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CATEGORIES OF DATA COLLECTION

Observation  Interviews and questionnaires  Documents  Audiovisual materials 

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION What the participant did.  His or her appearance.  Body language and affect ( how they appeared to be feeling).  The surrounding environment  Interaction among two or more research subjects.  Your own reactions to the interview or observation 

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DATA TO BE ANALYZED WILL CONSIST OF: Words recorded on tape or transcribed.  Your notes.  Documents or other pre-existing items. 

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RICHARDSON (2000 AS CITED IN MONTCALM & ROYSE, 2002) IDENTIFIES FOUR TYPES OF NOTES YOU SHOULD KEEP ON YOUR RESEARCH.

Observational notes – description of what you saw, heard, and felt.  Methodological notes – what decisions did you make about doing the interview or observation and analysing your data.  Theoretical notes – your initial impressions or hypotheses.  Personal notes – statements reflecting what you are thinking or feeling about your work. 

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1. HOW TO PREPARE AND ORGANISE THE DATA FOR ANALYSIS? 12

Organise data  Transcribe data  Analyse by hand or computer - Use of Qualitative Computer Programmes 

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ORGANISING DATA (CRESSWELL, 2012, P238)

In QR, data collected is extensive; for eg. 30-min interview will result in 20 pages of single-spaced transcription  Develop a matrix or a table of resources that can be used to help organise the data  Organise the material by type: all interviews/ observations/ documents/photographs/ other visual materials; you might also consider organising the materials by participant, site, location, or some combinations of these approaches  Keeping duplicate copies of all forms of data 

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TRANSCRIBING DATA In QR, you collect data through interviewing or writing fieldnotes during observations  You have to listen to the tapes & read the notes to begin the process of data analysis.  As a general rule of thumb, it takes 4 hours to transcribe 1 hour of tape. 

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TRANSCRIBING DATA 

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Transcription is the process of converting audiotape recordings or fieldnotes into text data. All words, expressions and sounds (for e.g: pauses (“[pause]”) or “[laughter]”, other noise “[telephone rings]” or “[inaudible]”) during the interview need to be transcribed in order to capture and provide all the details of an interview.

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HINTS FOR TAPED INTERVIEWS Use and external microphone  Use a telephone pick up device  Avoid possible loud noise interference  As interviewers – induce slower, distinct speech  Use new high quality tapes or good well maintained recording equipment  Think clearly about the format you want for your printed transcription 

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ANALYZE BY HAND OR COMPUTER 

Hand analysis  Researchers

read the data, mark it by hand and divide it into parts  Use color coding to mark the parts of the text  Cutting and pasting text sentences onto cards

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Computer analysis  Researchers

use qualitative computer program to facilitate the process of storing, analysing, sorting and representing or visualizing the data

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2. HOW TO EXPLORE AND CODE THE DATA? 19

Explore the general sense - Agar (1980) suggested that…”you read the transcripts in their entirety several times. Immerse yourself in the details, trying to get a sense of the interview as a whole before breaking it into parts”  Code the data 

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DEVELOPING DESCRIPTIONS & THEMES FROM THE DATA (CASE STUDY

APPROACH)

Coding data  Developing a description from the data  Defining themes from the data  Connecting and interrelating themes 

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through data

Many Pages of Text

of information

Many Segments of Text

segments of information with codes

30-40 codes

redundancy of codes

Codes reduced to 20

Educational Research 2e:   Creswell

A VISUAL MODEL OF THE CODING PROCESS IN QUALITATIVE Divide text Reduce Label Collapse RESEARCH Initially read into segments Overlap and

codes into themes

Reduce Codes to 5-7 Themes

WHERE TO START – BASIC OR “FIRST LEVEL” CODING (ESTABLISHMENT OF CATEGORIES) 

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Creation of data transcript. Organizing this transcript into units of analysis – easiest way is to do this question by question in your interview guide (assumes that you have asked all of most of the questions to each of the respondents). Choose a unit of analysis in a written document or transcript. This might be a whole interview, page, paragraph, sentence, phrase, or word. Across all respondents, count the number of times a particular word, similar phrase or sentence occurs.* Establish categories for similar phrases or thoughts. Put together a frequency table to indicate how many times this common element occurs or simply describe how many times it occurred in your narrative 23

CODING DATA 

Open Coding  Assign

a code word or phrase that accurately describes the meaning of the text segment  Line-by-line coding is done first in theoretical research  More general coding involving larger segments of text is adequate for practical research (action research)

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AXIAL CODING The process of looking for categories that cut across all data sets  After this type of coding, you have identified your themes  You can’t classify something as a theme unless it cuts across the preponderance of the data 

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CATEGORISING

THE NEXT STEP IS MAKING COMPARISON ACROSS CATEGORIES AND AMONG QUESTIONS (AXIAL OR SECOND LEVEL CODING)

 Are

there similarities among the categories  Does one category precede another  Do two categories occur at the same time in the same statement  Are there overlaps among the categories  Are there obvious patterns or themes  Can a hypothesis be generated about cause and effect relationships (based on these patterns).

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CLUSTERING After open coding an entire text, make a list of all code words  Cluster together similar codes and look for redundant codes  Objective: reduce the long list of codes to a smaller, more manageable number (25 or 30) 

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PRELIMINARY ORGANIZING SCHEME Take this new list of codes and go back to the data  Reduce this list to codes to get 5 to 7 themes or descriptions  Themes are similar codes aggregated together to form a major idea in the database  Identify the 5-7 themes by constantly comparing the data (Constant Comparative Analysis) 

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3. HOW DO YOU USE CODES TO BUILD DESCRIPTION AND THEMES? 30

DESCRIPTION A detailed rendering of people, places, or events in a setting in qualitative research  Codes such as “seating arrangements,” “teaching approach,” or “physical layout of the room,” might all be used to describe a classroom where instruction takes place 

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NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION From the coding and the themes, construct a narrative description and possibly a visual display of the findings for your research report  Use the assigned format 

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CONSTRUCTING THE NARRATIVE  Identify

dialogue that provides for

themes  Look for dialogue in the participants’ own dialect  Use metaphors and analogies  Collect quotes from interview data or observations  Locate multiple perspectives & contrary evidence  Look for vivid detail  Identify tensions and contradictions in individual experiences

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Educational Research 2e:   Creswell

Coding Used in a Descriptive age

The Incident and Response The incident occurred on the campus of a large public university in a Midwestern city. A decade ago, this city had been designated an “allAmerican city,” but more recently, its normally tranquil environment Description builds has been disturbed by an increasing number of assaults and homicides. from broad to narrow Some of these violent incidents have involved students at the university. Situate the reader The incident that provoked this study occurred on a Monday in in the place October. A forty-three-year-old graduate student, enrolled in a seniorlevel actuarial science class, arrived a few minutes before class, armed with a vintage Korean War military semiautomatic rifle loaded with a Provide details thirty-round clip of thirty caliber ammunition. He carried another thirtyround clip in his pocket. Twenty of the thirty-four students in the class had already gathered for class, and most of them were quietly reading the student newspaper. The instructor was en route to class. The gunman pointed the rifle at the students, swept it across the Detail to create a room, and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. Trying to unlock the sense of “being there” rifle, he hit the butt of it on the instructor’s desk and quickly tried firing it again. Again it did not fire. By this time, most students realized what was happening and dropped to the floor, overturned their desks, and Use of action verbs tried to hide behind them. After about twenty seconds, one of the and vivid modifiers students shoved a desk into the gunman, and students ran past him and adjectives out into the hall and out of the building. The gunman hastily departed the room and went out of the building to his parked car, which he had left

WHY THEMES? It is best to write a qualitative report providing detailed information about a few themes rather than general information about many themes  Themes can also be referred to as Categories 

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NAMING THE THEMES OR CATEGORIES 

The names can come from at least three sources:  The

researcher  The participants  The literature

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Most common: when the researcher comes up with , concepts, and categories that reflect what he or she sees in the data

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THEMES SHOULD… Reflect the purpose of the research  Be exhaustive--you must place all data in a category  Be sensitizing--should be sensitive to what is in the data 

 i.e.,

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“leadership” vs. “charismatic leadership”

Be conceptually congruent--the same level of abstraction should characterize all categories at the same level  For

instance, you wouldn’t have produce, canned goods, and fruit

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TYPES OF THEMES  Ordinary:

themes a researcher expects  Unexpected: themes that are surprises and not expected to surface  Hard-to-classify: themes that contain ideas that do not easily fit into one theme or that overlap with several themes  Major & minor themes: themes that represent the major ideas, or minor, secondary ideas in a database  Minor

themes fit under major themes in the write up38

Educational Research 2e:   Creswell

Coding Used in Theme age Safety The violence in the city that involved university students and the Title for theme subsequent gun incident that occurred in a campus classroom shocked based on words of the typically tranquil campus. A counselor aptly summed up the participant feelings of many: “When the students walked out of that classroom, their world had become very chaotic; it had become very random, something had happened that robbed them of their sense of safety.” Evidence for themes Concern for safety became a central reaction for many informants. When the chief student affairs officer described the istration’s based on multiple perspectives of reaction to the incident, he listed the safety of students in the participants classroom as his primary goal, followed by the needs of the news media for details about the case, helping all students with Within themes psychological stress, and providing public information on safety. As he are sub-themes talked about the safety issue and the presence of guns on campus, he mentioned that a policy was under consideration for the storage of guns used by students for hunting. Within 4 hours after the incident, a press conference was called during which the press was briefed not only on the details of the incident, but also on the need to ensure the safety of the campus. Soon thereafter the university istration initiated an informational campaign on campus safety. A letter, describing the incident, was sent to the university board . (One board member asked, “How could such an incident happen at this university?”)

4. HOW DO YOU REPRESENT AND REPORT FINDINGS? 40

REPRESENTING FINDINGS Create comparison table  Develop a hierarchical tree diagram  Present figures  Draw a map  Develop a demographic table 

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REPORTING FINDINGS Primary form – a narrative discussion  Author summarizes in detail the findings from their data analysis  No set form 

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USEFUL HINTS Include dialogues that provide for themes  State the dialogue in the participants native language / regional or ethnic dialect  Use metaphors and analogies  Report quotes from interview data or from observation of individuals  Report multiple perspectives and contrary evidence  Write in vivid detail  Specify tensions and contradictions in individual experiences 

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5. HOW DO YOU INTERPRET FINDINGS? 44

INTERPRETATION Means the researcher steps back and and forms some larger meaning about the phenomenon based on personal views, comparisons with past studies, or both.  In other words, QR is an interpretive research where you have to make sense of your findings. 

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Summarize findings  Convey Personal Reflections  Make comparisons to the Literature  Offer Limitations & Suggestions for Future Research 

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FUTURE RESEARCH SUGGESTED Researchers make recommendations for future research  “In

addition, further research is needed to determine outcomes for a diversified culture of students, including, but not limited to African-American students and students diagnosed with AD/HD. Research is also needed to examine and validate existing frameworks before professing any general claims concerning the outcomes for students engaged in service learning activities” (Terry, 2003). 47

6. HOW DO YOU VALIDATE THE ACCURACY OF YOUR FINDINGS? 48

RELIABILITY OR DEPENDABILITY From a quantitative perspective, reliability refers to the extent to which research findings can be replicated  From a qualitative perspective, dependability, (reliability) in qualitative research is not based on outsiders getting the same results, but that outsiders concur that, given the data collected, the results make sense. In other words, the results are dependable and consistent (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). 

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VALIDATING THE ACCURACY OF FINDINGS

At the end, the qualitative researcher validates the finding by determining the accuracy or credibility of the findings. Methods include:  Prolonged

engagement & persistent observation in the field  Triangulation  Peer Review  Clarifying researcher bias  Member Checking  Rich, thick description  External Audit

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WE ENHANCE RELIABILITY OF OUR DATA ANALYSIS BY:     

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Comparing our categories to pre-existing frameworks. Having an additional person redo the analysis. Comparing notes from more than one source. Using more than one type of qualitative data in our analysis (observation, interviews, document analysis). Supplementing the qualitative analysis with information from another quantitative source (for example, a survey). Keeping a record (audit) of how you established data categories and identified themes. Establishing a loop so that participants can whether or not the analysis is accurate enough to reflect their views. 51

FINALLY, SOME ADVICE… Try not to become overwhelmed at the anticipation of analysing your data, especially if you have experienced stress, frustration,and confusion.  The analysis of action research data is typically much less complex and detailed than in other, more formal research studies (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2003).  In addition,do not feel that it is a requirement for you to analyse the data; you are certainly free to enlist the help of other teachers, s, or data analysts (Creswell, 2005). 

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THANK YOU…. 53

TUTORIAL QUESTION 54

REFER TO YOUR TUTORIAL 8 Problem / Issue: Poor class control during group work Task 1: What are your sources of information? Task 2: What are your data collection tools? Task 3: In small groups, design a questionnaire that you plan to ister to teachers regarding the issue.

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TUTORIAL 10 

Based on the data collection method that you have chosen, discuss the codes and themes that you wish to use.

Here are some samples of AR. Discuss the data analysis used by the respective researchers.  http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/v4n12007/shen.pdf 

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http://iteslj.org/Articles/Snell-Interaction.html

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http://dppd.ubbcluj.ro/adn/article_6_2_3.pdf 56