Coding and Analysis

1. Coding and Analysis NEXT SESSION: READ WELLER AND ROMNEY IN READING PACKET

2. Learning Objectives • describe progress in group projects • note steps in developing a semi-structured interview • describe guidelines for computer coding of interview text • describe the steps in performing analysis

3. Lectures Increasingly less important as you learn from doing the work and I have less to 'teach' you Learning from other students who are doing their projects becomes an important component Exercises in class expose you to ideas and concepts

4. Interviewing HAND IN Exercise talk about • Open ended questions you used? • Probes • What worked well? • What didn't work so well? • Non-verbal aspects? • Field notes ("scrap," expanded, TA comments) --your group project and what you have learned

5. Qualitative Research Question to address or interest in something Preliminary steps often to form hypothesis • (formative research) Further study Collection of DATA (field work) • Observation, interviews, other work depending on what you discover DATA analysis • Coding (putting identifiers on what you found) • Looking for themes (main ideas) • Putting it all together (what you learned) Report

6. ANALYSIS THEMES

7. Terminology terminology in qualitative research is not consistent, so describe what you do, and when you use terms, give their meanings ethnography, field methods, qualitative research, participant observation, case study, naturalistic methods, responsive evaluation, needs assessment are used interchangeably by many

8. Complexity of qualitative inquiry can have multi-site, multi-method studies we look at many methods, separately, letting you try to integrate them in your exercises

9. Semi-structured interview from a series of interviews, will know most of the questions that need to be answered, but can’t predict the answer • Blood donors--spontaneous, privacy, altruism • University Police--security, emotionless • Big Time study hall--desire for a noisy environment

10. Semi-structured interview prepare a list of short questions as prompts try and let the interview be conversational, rather than questionnaire format

11. Semi-structured interview • questions should address only one aspect of a topic, otherwise you may confuse yourself and the informant • explore the domain of the topic and list in sensible order, everything you want to know, then construct question stems to cover the domain • DON'T GET STUCK IN TERM: domain

12. Semi-structured interview • pretest with a colleague, record the session and ask the colleague to think out loud so that any confusion is recorded, and the nature of the confusion is clear • revise, then pretest with a participant • revise

13. many questions can be leading, what is your general opinion of the US health care system what about the professionals, the doctors and nurses with whom you interacted, tell me about them

14. many questions can be leading, asking about what types of topics were on the informational sheet handed out “you mentioned earlier about the nurses not talking to you unless you asked them a question. Did you ask any specific questions?” “what kind of accent does he have?”

15. Homeless youth in SF • Part Obs: June-Sept. 1997, Castro District, San Francisco key informant, Phase I informant interviews (#9) , preliminary analysis • Phase II Semi-structured interviews (#11) • wanted more females & <18, newly on street went to Haight-Ashbury • additional participant observation Interviews lasted 2-3 hours, with 1 to 1.5 hours tape recorded

16. Student projects: • EXAMPLES of semi-structured questions you might consider?

17. Codes (abbreviation or symbol applied to a segment of words, or paragraph in order to classify it)

18. Types of codes numeric, Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) memnonic, Words,

19. Function of codes: organization retrieval assembly reduction usefulness

20. Cultural theme Morris Opler (1945) defined it as: "a postulate or position, declared or implied, and usually controlling behavior or stimulating activity, which is tacitly approved or openly promoted in society"

21. Function of codes: Choose and flag themes so you can clump relevant strips from different reports • Spradley reading on themes is very good (reading package) Identify field encounter Identify informant characteristics

22. Coding and ANALYSIS A very good device for analysis Also could just search text for words • bamboo in Nepal

23. Codes can relate to: terminology/definitions methods/data collection • ways of asking questions • non-verbal responses STUDENT EXAMPLES

24. Observed behavior Student examples of codes what was expected but not observed • Newar nose piercing

25. Process of coding EITHER Create a small list of codes prior to fieldwork • forces you to tie research questions or conceptual interests directly to data • be ready to redefine or discard codes when they look inapplicable, overbuilt, empirically ill-fitting, or overly abstract OR: wait for field notes to suggest more emic/empiric labels • code expanded field notes as you go, or right after

26. Keeping Track of Data • serial number for each note, then date, place, name of informant (use encrypting codes for places & informant names & keep code book of names & locations physically separately from field notes) • dates: 980126, 020423, 050419

27. WHERE TO PUT THE CODE? Penciled in margin for you now, but in large projects, computers handled this in various ways Log book of codes is essential • Re-assign • Others to use who code the data • May have two people independently code the expanded field notes

28. Coding Field Notes • Hard work, do it right after the activity • CODING IS REALLY ANALYSIS, (Bernard), once you have coded, you will have done much of the analysis

29. Guidelines for coding for computer code more abstract concepts than descriptive info (after collect data) limit to <50 codes make codes stand out (bold, brackets, special symbols, *, #, { [ ) Icons signifying relationship, like folder in Mac or Windows, Trash Can, Hourglass Macros HIDDEN TEXT (especially if have two people independently code) or track changes

30. Glossary to the codes for ease of reading Alphabetize (eating habits) • TAm morning • Tev evening • TNt middle of night • TPm afternoon place a thematic glossary as well, helps you organize your codes • Body posture suggesting reaction to 'soap' • Terminology used to refer to tan types

31. Data Analysis search for patterns in data & for the ideas that help to explain the existence of these patterns a great deal of analysis happens when you think of how to present your data, that will be covered in session 13 (computers), 14 (presenting) and more in session 16 and 17 (latter with Helene Starks)

32. Analysis Begins before you start the qualitative research, continues throughout the effort, unlike many quantitative studies develop ideas and test them against your observations, modify ideas as you gather more material and reflect on it

33. Analysis outlining program (MORE) for the Macintosh, most valuable software for me Inspiration Software, Inc. • http://www.inspiration.com/home.cfm • sales@inspiration.com • 800-877-4292 or (503)297-3004

34. Analysis be very self critical, ask colleagues, informants, to review balance between seeking emic perspective, documenting folk analyses, but remain skeptical, don’t be afraid to develop and state preliminary ideas

35. Analysis Question whether or not to be too grounded in the literature, and influenced by it, so consider keeping your reading at arms length

36. Qualitative Data Analysis Process: Generic Style • Review Notes ---------> Coding IS COMPREHENSION • Coding ---------> Search and Extraction IS SYNTHESIZING • Search and Extraction ---------> Pattern Identification IS THEORIZING (Sorting phase of analysis) • Pattern Identification ---------> Summarization IS GENERALIZING

38. Summary Semi-structured interviews can help understand cultural elements once you have done some observation and interview work Coding is the first step in analysis

39. Levels of Analysis defining & describing items, making empirical statements about objects & phenomena meaning & meaning interactions, tracing interconnections with items & patterns patterns, grouping items & making linkages

40. Levels of Analysis Grand vs mid-range theory (domain analysis)

41. ask questions of data at different levels • emic-etic • macro-micro

45. Cycle of data --->analysis/interpretation---> data • monitor & report your own thought processes as much as possible (keep info on decision you make about coding & extracting patterns), ie keep a log book

46. Cycle of data --->analysis/interpretation---> data • much of what you develop stems from your own basic perspectives, what kind of person you are, and your experience in the research area

47. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema • Analytic Foci • Selecting indigenous (emic) or investigator-generated concepts & typologies (etic) • often use both

48. Analytic Foci • - chronological • - key events, • - settings, • - people • - processes • - issues

49. Analytic Foci: Chronological • Series of events:

50. Analytic Foci: Key events