By now, you will know that when gathering qualitative data, the methods of data collection are more exploratory and less rigid than quantitative methods. Where quantitative researchers use Positivist methods such as structured, closed-ended questionnaires to collect data, qualitative researchers (Interpretivists) use unstructured, open-ended questionnaires. The reason for this is that qualitative researchers are very interested in the way people experience things. They want to understand people’s experiences…from the people’s own perspectives. They do not want to impose their own ideas on their participants. So, rather than giving a specific choice of answers from which participants have to choose, they leave the question open so that participants can respond fully to the question.
Therefore, the data generated by qualitative reseach is more detailed. As a result of the large amounts of data generated by qualitative research, researchers often have to ‘sift’ through the data to search for important themes and patterns. They tend use codes to identify themes found in the data. This process is called ‘coding’. A code in a qualitative inquiry is a word or short phrase that describes what the data is about.
This week, our task is to read and view the resources provided for the week. Once this is done, read the sample interview below. Then:
1) suggest 2 codes that can be used to describe the main themes you see presented in the transcript data below.
2) Include the sections of the interview that caused you to arrive at these codes.
Please note I am not asking you to identify different types of codes. I am asking you to come up with 2 codes (words or phrases) of your own to describe the main themes you find in the interview below.
Last term, one student presented her code like this - this is a great way of summarizing it so I encourage you to do something similar if that makes it easier for you - using your own codes of course!
