NAME : MWAI CATHERINENYAWIRA

ADM NO.: C50/23611/2013

UNIT CODE: PUCU 800

UNIT TITLE: RESEARCH METHODS

PRESENTED TO: DR. CALVIN KAYI

SCHOOL: SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT: GEOGRAPHY

QUESTION: USING APPROPRIATE EXAMPLES, DISCUSSTHE KEY STEPS IN ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA.

INTRODUCTION

This essay discusses, with appropriate examples, the key steps in analyzing qualitative data.

DEFINITION

Williams, (2007) argues that a researcher anticipates the type

of data needed to respond to research questions they have.

They will use qualitative approach for research questions

requiring textural data. Qualitative research is a holistic

approach which involves discovery. It requires natural

setting. It contains a social phenomenon which is

investigated from the participant’s point of view.

Qualitative research involves purposeful use for describing,

explaining and interpret the collected data. Qualitative data

formulates and builds new theories.

It is built on inductive rather than deductive reasoning. That

is, from what is observed, one poses questions that they

attempt to explain.

Creswell & Creswell, (2003) explain that, unlike the

quantitative data that contains close-ended information in

which the researcher sets in advance the response

possibilities, the qualitative data consist of open-ended

information without pre-determined response categories .

Qualitative researchers analyze text or image data like

transcriptions, field notes from observations, journals,

pictures, and so on. This is unlike in quantitative research

where numeric data is analyzed.

Qualitative data analysis involves organizing the data

collected and summarising it to make conclusions. This means

that once the data is collected, the researcher needs to

organize it for him/her to be able to make conclusions.

(Miles and Huberman, 1994: 12) illustrate the components of

data analysis as follows:

Data

collection Data

display

STEPS IN QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

1. Data collection and Recording

For data to be analyzed, it must be available in the first

place! Therefore, the initial stage for qualitative data

analysis, is data collection. Data for analysis can be

collected from various sources like, interviews or focus

groups, observation, group discussions, field notes, case

study and journals. Analysis of data occurs, as Miles and

Huberman, (1994) illustrate, simultaneously and iterative with

data collection, data interpretation, and report writing. That

means, as the researcher collects the data, the analysis is

done at the same time. As the researcher collects the data,

they also reflect on what the data says about the research

Data

reduction

Conclusions:

Drawing/verifying

being taken. Therefore during collection of data, the

researcher is doing a reflection of the same.

Interviews should be recorded on a tape, observations on the

field book.

If, for instance:

the researcher is interested in a research on the ban of

Public Service Vehicles night travels, in Kenya, and one

of his/her questions is on the relationship between night

travels and road accidents, (s)he must keep on reflecting

on that question and ask themselves if the information

they are getting/ collecting is of any relevance to the

questions at hand.

Or

if a researcher in the Literature Department is

interested in carrying out a research on the teaching of

Oral Literature in Teachers Training Colleges, as (s)he

collects data, e.g. through interviews, they must keep on

asking themselves if the data being collected is shedding

any light on the topic.

2. Transcription of the Data Collected

Once data is collected the researcher moves to the next step

which involves transcription of the data collected.

Transcription involves presenting the data collected, e.g.

from an interview into a written form ( a transcript of the

interview). Though transcription is time consuming, it helps

the researcher to get completely involved and familiar with

what the data says about the research undertaken.

Once the researcher has transcribed the data, they should

read through the text several times to understand it

completely. A copy of the original script should also be kept

in its original form as it may be required for future use.

3. Data Display

Data displays organize, compress and assemble information.

Data displaying involves organizing the data and summarising

the large amount of information collected so that the

researcher is able to analyse it. Organization of data is done

as by using matrices as Miles and Huberman, (1994) explain.

The researcher can use hierarchical trees, figures in boxes or

come up with comparison tables to compare themes, participants

and sites.

For example:

Question 4: In your opinion, why do you think the ban of Public Service

Vehicles (PSV) night travels , in Kenya is justified?

RESPONDENT RESPONSE1 Most accidents occur between

evenings and early mornings.

At that time, the roads are generally not clear as it is ratherdark and

the drivers are also too tired.

When the driver is not able to seethe roads clearly, especially

where the roads are poor,

he is likely to cause accidents.2 Drivers, especially of buses and

trailers

are most of the times too tired from driving throughout the day.

At night they are tempted to doze off

and this may cause accidents. 3 Most drivers, especially of Public

Service Vehicles and trailers

want to arrive to their places of

destination earlier, before the next scheduled travel

so that they can get time to rest, as they are usually too tired, and see their families.

As a result, they over speed the vehicles and overtake dangerously to make it intime.

This may result to accidents on theroads.

Or in a research on teaching of Oral literature in Teachers Training Colleges the researcher may display data as follows:

Question 4: How is Oral Literature taught in your college?

Respondent

Answer

A Oral literature is never allocated a lesson as a subject but integrated in the teaching of language skills.

B Oral literature is taught during reading of novels.

C Oral literature is taught as a methodology in listening and speaking.

D We teach/learn oral literature during English language lessons especially inthe reading, listening and speaking skills.

E There is no single lesson that is indicated as Oral Literature lesson on

the timetable. Since the teachers who teach it are English Language teachers, they teach it within the lesson, especially when dealing with listening, speaking and reading.

4. Data Coding and Reduction.

Coding is a data reduction method. Data reduction as Elton-

Chalcraft, Hansen and Twiselton (2008) postulate, helps the

researcher to collate their data, summarize and sort it in

relation to categories or themes. They further posit that

data analysis is about reducing the data so that it is

manageable, allowing the researcher to have better

understanding on issues and concepts relating to the research

questions.

Before the researcher begins coding, they should get the sense

of the whole by reading through the information collected

carefully. Having developed matrices at the data display

stage, the researcher reads through the information to get

the underlying meaning. (S)He then writes personal reflections

or other comments in the margin. The topics are abbreviated

using codes .

Codes, can be of few letters, words or symbols, according to

(Taylor-Powell and Marcus Renner, 2003). They are placed next

to the themes and ideas that the researcher finds. This is

done for several informants, and similar topics are clustered

together. The topics are then arranged into major topics,

unique topics and leftovers; what to include and what to

exclude. As categorization occurs, the researcher is able to

identify and label all the relevant themes.

Similar things that are brought out in the data are brought

together and they make a theme. In conclusion, coding is done

to reduce information into themes and categories.

This means that from many pages of a text, the researcher

comes up with many segments. (S)He then reduces the segments

to several categories, which are then reduced to a few

categories or themes.

For instance:

In a research the ban of Public Service Vehicles(PSV)

night travels in Kenya, an interview of 3 respondent may

be coded using words, as follows:

Question 4: In your opinion, why do you think the ban of PSV night travels , in Kenya is justified?

CODE RESPONDENT RESPONSETime

Invisibility

Exhaustion

Invisibility

Poor roads

Result

1 Most accidents occur between evenings and early mornings.

At that time, the roads are generally not clear as it is ratherdark and

the drivers are also too tired.

When the driver is not able to seethe roads clearly, especially

where the roads are poor,

he is likely to cause accidents.Buses and Trailers

Exhaustion

Dozing off

Result

2 Drivers, especially of buses and trailers

are most of the times too tired from driving throughout the day.

At night they are tempted to doze off

and this may cause accidents.

Public Service Vehicles and trailers

Haste to arrive

3 Most drivers, especially of PublicService Vehicles and trailers

want to arrive to their places of destination earlier, before the next scheduled travel

Need to rest and

bond with families

Over speedingDangerous overtaking

Result

so that they can get time to rest, as they are usually too tired, and see their families.

As a result, they over speed the vehicles and overtake dangerously to make it intime.

This may result to accidents on theroads.

Abbreviated codes, as stated by Taylor-Powell and Renner,

(2003) argue can also be used as follows, in a research

on Teaching of Oral Literature in Teachers Training

Colleges, where five respondents are interviewed:

Categories: Integrated (Int), English Language skills ( E LangS), Listening (L), Speaking(S), intensive reading (Intens R), Reading (R)

Question 4: How is Oral Literature taught in your college?

Code Respondent

Answer

IntE Lang S

A Oral literature is never allocated a lesson as a subject but integrated in the teaching of language skills.

IntIntens R

B Oral literature is taught during reading of novels.

IntL, S

C Oral literature is taught as a methodology in listening and speaking.

IntE Lang SR, L, S

D We teach/learn oral literature during English language lessons especially inthe reading, listening and speaking skills.

IntE Lang SL, S, R

E There is no single lesson that is indicated as Oral Literature lesson onthe timetable. Since the teachers who teach it are English Language teachers, they teach it within the lesson, especially when dealing with listening, speaking and reading.

5. Generating and Grouping themes

This is done by constant comparative of the constant

patterns from the codes assigned to the sections of the

interview. Boeije, (2002) explains that comparison helps the

researcher to do what is necessary to develop a theory more

or less inductively, that is, coding, delineating categories,

and connecting them. He adds, “Constant comparison goes hand

in hand with theoretical sampling” (p. 393) Themes can also be

generated from the literature review and are grounded in the

research questions. The researcher should keep on referring to

the research question in order to establish how the ideas from

their data answers the questions.

For instance, in the research about the ban of PSV night

travels in Kenya, one of the research questions may based on

the relationship between occurrence of road accidents and

night travel. The researcher should establish those ideas from

the data gotten from the interview conducted, that answer

such a question.

Similar themes are grouped together to reduce their number.

The researcher, according to Taylor-Powell and Marcus

Renner, (2003) creates super categories whereby several

categories are combined into larger ideas and concepts.

In the research on the ban of night travels, a super

category_ CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS can be created. The code

can be made up of: poor roads, exhaustion in drivers,

over-speeding and dangerous overtaking.

In the Research on teaching of Oral Literature in

Colleges, we can create a super category- LANGUAGE SKILLS

which is made up of: Listening (L), Speaking (S), and

Reading (R)

It may also be found out that two or more themes consistently

occur together in the data, so that whenever one is found, the

other does not miss. The researcher, from such occurrences,

may want to suggest a cause and effect relationship.

For instance, from the above interviews,

Exhaustion in drivers of public service vehicles and trailers

is linked to accidents. The researcher may therefore argue

that most accidents are as a result of exhaustion in drivers.

In the second example. teaching of Oral literature goes hand

in hand with integration and language skills. From this, one

may argue that oral literature helps in the teaching of

Language skills.

Or if in an interview, poverty is constantly linked to poor

performance among students, a researcher may argue that

poverty causes poor performance among students.

6. Interpretation of data and Conclusion

Interpreting the data as explained by Taylor-Powell and

Renner, (2003) simply means, “ …attaching meaning and

significance to the analysis.” (p. 5) It involves

synthesizing the ideas learnt and attaching meaning and

significance to the data analysed which they refer to as, “

Bringing it all together” The significant ideas from the

analysis are gotten after studying the patterns and the

relationship between themes. Once the themes are gotten, the

researcher can easily select lessons learnt from the research.

Interpretation of data helps the researcher to reflect

critically on the findings to enable them come up with claims

or hypothesis which helps in description of the phenomenon

under study. Themes and connections are used to explain the

findings. The field data helps in identifying the theory to

use.

For instance,

The interpretation of the data on the ban of night bus

travels in Kenya, as far as causes of accidents at night

is concerned, can be as follows:

Causes of accidents at night:

There are a number of reasons as to why accidents happen at

night. When an exhausted driver drives a vehicle, he may cause

an accident. The fact that roads are not well visible at night

may also lead to accidents. Poor roads, over speeding and

dangerous overtaking can also result to accidents.

In the research on teaching of Oral Literature in

Teachers Training Colleges can be as follows:

Oral literature is not taught as an independent subject but

fully integrated with English Language. It is integrated in

the teaching of the Listening, Speaking and Reading skills.

7. Confirming the findings

It’s important for the researcher to confirm their findings

through triangulation. Triangulation helps to evaluate the

data collected. This done through use of various sources in

order to cross-check the results of the research. It helps to

strengthen the researchers evaluation and to check the

validity of the data and findings.

O' Conor and Gibson, (2003) expound on how data can be

confirmed using a number of dependent sources. They too

argue that when the findings are confirmed by more than one

‘instrument’ measuring same thing, the validity is enhanced.

Triangulation can be from different sources. The researcher

can also interview different members of the community who can

give different perspectives on specific questions or topic.

For instance:

In the research on the banning of night travels by PSV in

Kenya, the researcher may ask traffic police officers

questions, to enhance the validity of the data given by

the drivers and the general public on the topic.

In the research on teaching of Oral Literature in

Teachers Training Colleges, the researcher can ask the

consumers of the content given in class(student-teachers)

questions to confirm the findings derived from the data

given by tutors of these colleges.

Data can also be confirmed by using different methods. For

instance, if data was collected using interviews, the

researcher may be interested in looking at the same questions

or topics by trying to answer them using a different research

method like observation or focus groups. The researcher may as

well use quantitative data to triangulate qualitative data.

This can be done by designing a short questionnaire of close –

ended questions to cross-check the findings of the qualitative

data. For instance:

After conducting an interview using open-ended questions,

the researcher may design a questionnaire with close-

ended questions on the topic on the ban of night travels

of PSV in Kenya. E.g.

Question 3: At what time do most accidents occur on the

roads in Kenya

a. Between 6a.m- 9a.m

b. Between 9a.m – 6p.m

c. Between 6p.m-6a.m

Question 4. : Indicate whether the following

propositions about occurrence of road accidents in Kenya,

at night are true or false.

a. Most accidents occur due to poor visibility of the

roads.

b. Exhausted drivers are likely to cause accidents at

night.

c. Exhausted drivers tend to over speed and overtake

dangerously on the roads.

d. Road accidents at night and mostly involve buses and

trailers

Triangulation can also be done by having different researchers

conduct the same research, or analyze the same data. The

findings are then compared. This is a good way to test the

validity of the research done.

The researcher needs to ask themselves if the findings are

what they were expecting, if there were major surprises in

the findings and if they find anything similar or different

from the literature from other similar studies. The answers

can be found by reviewing the research questions,

triangulation using information from the previous studies on

the same topic, personal notes, observations or journals on

the same topic.

CONCLUSION

The steps in qualitative data analysis are iterative and run

simultaneously. As the researcher is doing one thing he is

also doing another. For instance, as collection and recording

is being done, the researcher is reflecting and looking for

relationship between the data being collected and the findings

(s)he expects. Data reduction is also done in all stages after

collection and recording. This enables the researcher to

reduce the information to few themes and thus enable them to

draw conclusions. One step is dependent of the other.

REFERENCE

Boeije, H. (2002). A Purposeful Approach to the Constant ComparativeMethod in the Analysis of Qualitative Interviews. Quality and Quantity ,391-409.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2003). Mixed Methods Research: Developments,Debates, and Dilemmas. In R. A. Swanson, & E. ElwoodF. Holton, Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods of Inquiry (pp. 315-326). San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler Publishers.

Ellen Taylor-Powell; Marcus Renner. (2003). Analyzing Qualitative Data. Programme Devevopment & Evaluation , 1-12.

Helene O' Conor; Nancy Gibson. (2003). A Step-by-Step Guide to Qualitative Data Analysis. A Journal of Obriginal and Indigenous Community Health , 1-100.

Miles, M.; Huberman, A. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Source Book (2nd Edition). Thousand Oakes: Sage.

Sally Elton-Chalcraft; Alice Hansen; Samantha Twiselton. (2008). Doing Classroom Ressearch: A Step-by-Step Guide for Student Teachers. Berkshire: Open University Press.

Williams, C. (2007). Research Methods. Journal of Business & Economic Research , 65-72.