HOW TO ANALYZE A

QUALITATIVE DATA?
LEARNING OBJECTIVE

By end of the session, students will be able to :

• Apply coding/indexing/categorizing
• Validity and reliability in qualitative research
CODING/INDEXING/CATEGORIZING

• It confusion because used in qualitative data where it means

“putting number in answer”
• Coding/indexing/categorizing  linking chunk of data (text)
as representative of phenomenon
• Not necessarily to COUNT them
ANALYSIS STEPS

STAGE 1
• Read the text as a whole; make notes at the end
• Look for what is is about
• Major themes
• Unusual issues, events, etc
• Group cases into types or categories (may reflect research
questions – e.g. male and female)
STAGE 2 Read again
• Mark the text (underline, circle, highlight)
• Marginal notes/annotations
• Labels for codes
• Highlight key words
• Note and analytic ideas suggested
STAGE 3 Code the text
• Systematically mark the text
• Indicate what chunks of text are about – themes – index them
• Review the codes
• Eliminate repetition and similar codes (combines)
• Thinks of grouping
• May have lots of different codes (do not worry at early stages – can be
reduced later)
STAGE 4 Relate general theoretical ideas to the text
• Coding is only part of analysis
• You must add your interpretation
• Identify significance for respondents
• Interconnections between codes
• Relations of codes to research questions and research literature
CODING APPROACH  THEMATIC
CODING
 HOW IS CODING DONE?
Text Code
In a village like this… Age contrast
don’t seem to have much
difficulty when they are out of work –
a fortnight and they are back again – Young find work easily
word of mouth, I’d say. It’s a different
situation that I’m in – I just can’t cay
“Oh I heard there is a job going on Contrast situation
building site, I’ll go and have a go for it. I
wouldn’t be able to do that
APPLYING THE CODES TO THE
DATA
• Identify chunks of text to which code applies
• Can be phrases, sentence, several sentences or even
paragraphs
• Codes passage may overlaps
WHAT CAN CODES BE ABOUT?

• Acts – usually brief events

• Activities – of longer duration in setting, people involved
• Meaning – what directs participant’s action
• Participants – people involve or adaptation into a setting
• Relationship – between people
• Setting – the entire context of the events under study
• Conditions
• Interactions
• Strategies and tactics
• Consequences – what happens if ……
WAYS TO IDENTIFY THEMES

• Repetitions
• Indigenous typologies (in vivo)
• Metaphors and analogis
• Similarities and differences
• Linguistic connectors
• Missing data (what is omitted)