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Chapter 11- Analysis; processing, coding, and interrogating dataAdditional Materials: Click on the links below to download further materials relevant to your study of Chapter 11:
Using N-Vivo: Exercise 1: Fathers’ attendance at deliveries of babies Part A: Developing and Refining a Provisional Coding Frame: This Exercise on developing a provisional coding frame is linked to one of the exercises accompanying Chapter 6 If you have generated data on this topic and if you have transcribed this discussion you can use your transcript in order to identify relevant themes or codes. If not, don’t despair, as it’s perfectly possible to develop a provisional coding frame without recourse to a verbatim transcript – indeed, it can be helpful to set this process in motion even while you wait for transcripts to appear. If you worked on another of the suggested ‘focus group-friendly’ questions, you will still be able to engage in the second part of this exercise, as excerpts are provided from focus groups on views about fathers’ attendance at deliveries. You should ask the following questions: Click on the questions below to read suggestions from the author on how to answer them. What are the themes that emerge?This involves drawing both on your own a-priori codes – in this case you will probably want to include items such as ‘pressure’ and ‘role of fathers’ as starting points. A-priori codes often reflect the wording of question in our interview schedules and topic guides and we would certainly be dismayed if the data we generated did not address our central concerns. However, you should also be alert for ‘picking bluebells’-type phrase too, which may sum up complex and intriguing ideas. How are these themes and codes related to each other – is one a sub-category of another?In keeping with the attention paid elsewhere in this book to the disposition of individual researcher engaging effectively in the process of qualitative data analysis is partly a matter of findings what works for you. In the course of running workshops I have come to realize that some individuals are natural ‘broad brush’ coders whilst others veer towards identifying smaller themes and categories. What matters is not the route they take but that they both get to the same place in the end. It is very important not just to produce a huge number of codes. Computer packages may encourage what Coffey et al. (1996) call a ‘coding fetish’, simply because it is so easy to create codes. The ‘broad brush’ coder should break these down into their constituent parts, whilst the meticulous coder should search for wider concepts and themes under which to group her/his codes. The available computer packages allow you to use up to 9 levels under each broad heading and should be more than sufficient (whether you are carrying out a manual or computer-assisted analysis). Many successful research teams shave capitalized on these different orientations and skills as they collaboratively develop coding frames. If you are engaging in the accompanying exercises as part of coursework and have the opportunity for small group work you will, hopefully, be able to see this in action. Although personal dispositions are likely to surface with regard to your involvement in subsequent projects, you may find that you have to develop new approaches as what works for you on one project may not work on another, due, perhaps to the volume or form of the data generated or as a consequence of time constraints. What sorts of distinctions are made by focus group participants?(Hopefully you may have already been attentive to some of these while generating your data as recommended in Chapters 5 and 6.) Part B: Trying Out a Provisional Coding Frame: I have reproduced below part of a provisional coding frame produced in the course of one focus group workshop on the topic of fathers’ attendance at deliveries of babies, which shows some broad codes and related sub-categories. Note the inclusion of the two a-priori codes suggested by questions posed by the focus group topic guide. Take either the coding frame reproduced below or your own provisional coding frame and have a go at coding the excerpts from focus group transcripts presented below. These focus groups also discussed the issue of fathers’ attendance at deliveries and employed the same topic guide and two cartoons as I suggested you use for the data generating exercise at the end of Chapter 6. As you do this do amend the coding frame to take account of any new codes or sub-categories you identify. When I use this exercise in workshops I often reproduce the provisional coding frame on a large piece of paper (A3) and encourage participants to scribble on this (with their coloured pens) as they make these changes. You may find it helpful to refer to the thumbnail sketch of participants (presented at the beginning of each excerpt) as you revise your coding frame and begin to ask important questions as to the patterning of perspectives and comments (This aspect of qualitative data analysis is the focus of the next exercise accompanying this chapter.) Reviewing your Provisional Coding Frame: It would be very surprising – indeed rather worrying - if you were able to code a whole transcript (or set of excerpts as in the current exercise) using only the codes produced in your provisional coding frame without the need to develop further codes and/or sub-categories. In reviewing the usefulness of your coding frame and deciding how it should be developed, ask the following questions:
You may wish to print out the provisional coding and to amend this as new themes and categories occur to you as you attempt to apportion codes to the segments of text reproduced below. In workshops I often use transcripts or excerpts reproduced on A3 paper to facilitate note-taking and recording of reflections (allowing even for ‘stickies’ to be appended) as people engage in this hands-on exercise. Please click on the links below to download the transcript excerpts: Exercise 2: Identifying and Explaining Patterning in Qualitative Data This exercise is about identifying and seeking to begin to explain patterns in the data. I have provided a table which gives demographic details for each of the 12 couples whose interview data excerpts have been used for this exercise. (N.B. This was a longitudinal study which started out with 24 couples, but, for the purposes of the exercise – as distinct from the analysis carried out on the real project – this has been condensed.) When I use this ‘data’ in a workshop I usually advise people to put the table with demographic details to one side to act as a thumbnail sketch, as they will return to this repeatedly as a resource, as they seek to identify and make sense of the patterning the data excerpts provided. You may find that it is more helpful to photocopy the demographic details sheet and, indeed, the data excerpts. Each couple has been given a unique identifier and the woman is referred to as ‘F’ and the man as ‘M’ throughout. Of course, there are many other details that might potentially help you in interpreting the data excerpts and, in the course of a face-to-face workshop, I do often provide some additional information – for example, regarding the nature of the couple’s fertility problems. However, the information provided here should be sufficient to enable you to engage in the exercise, without diverting you to a fascinating but perhaps confusing set of many potential avenues of interpretation and ‘theorizing’. Note that, as the codes are ‘in-vivo’ rather than ‘a-priori’ ones – apart, of course, from the demographic information, which was routinely collected - there are not necessarily examples from each of the couples included under any one heading. This is because the exercise reflects the situation a real-life project, where the absence of comment on a topic can sometimes tell you almost as much as a comment that relates directly to a particular view or concept. In making sense of the data excerpts you should, therefore, be asking (either of yourself, or your ‘team-mates, if you elect to do this as a group exercise) the following questions;
Click here to download the table of demographic details. Advice on How to Use this Exercise: Click here to access data summaries and pre-coded excerpts related to Exercise 2. Commentary on Exercise as a Whole:
Hopefully, this exercise will have shown how you can start with what seems a pretty routine category – age and the importance of the woman’s age and declining fertility – in explaining couple’s perceptions and experiences. However, through comparing and contrasting the comments from couples with differing demographic details, you will, hopefully, have ‘unpicked’ the significance of age. It’s not just about the woman’s chronological age – it’s also about the man’s age and their capacity to parent as a couple. Although the problems may be medical in origin (at least for some of the couples) sub-fertility is experienced socially.
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