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 (2
nd
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 Dredges 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
1
st
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