Chapter+8+Notes

Gene (pages 431 through 451)

Thick description: Organizing the data: Protecting Data: Case Studies: The challenge: When analysis does begins? primary resource package.
 * Thick, rich description provides the foundation for qualitative analysis and reporting.
 * Good description takes the reader into the setting being described.
 * Description forms the bedrock of all qualitative reporting.
 * Must inventory of what you have.
 * Are there any parts that you put off to write later and never got to but need to be finished.
 * Are there any glaring holes in the data.
 * Are all the data properly labeled with notation.
 * It is prudent to make sure you have back-up copies of all your data.
 * Putting one master copy away someplace secure and safe.
 * Case analysis involves organizing the data by specific cases for in-depth study and comparison.
 * Qualitative analysis transforms data into findings.
 * No formula exists for that transformation guidance.
 * The challenge of qualitative analysis lies in making sense of massive amounts of data.
 * This involves reducing the volume of raw information such as:
 * Sifting trivia from significance
 * Identifying significant patterns
 * Constructing a framework
 * He recommends sometimes to reopening discussions with intended evaluation uses to make sure that the original focus of the evaluation remains relevant.
 * Action research reporting
 * In much action research, the process is the product, so no report will be produced for outside consumption.
 * Data that emerge while still in the field constitute the beginning of analysis.
 * They are part of the record of field notes.
 * Recording and tracking analytical insights that occur during data collection are part of fieldwork and the beginning of qualitative analysis.
 * Author says to remember this rule:
 * No matter what you are studying, always collect data on the lowest level unit of analysis possible.
 * Once the new case data have been accumulated, the researcher may write a case record.
 * The case record pulls together and organizes the voluminous case data into a comprehensive,

Irene (pages 452 through 472)

I **//love//** this insight: “The complete analysis isn’t” (Halcolm, p. 431).

Once case studies have been written, analytic strategies can be used to further analyze, compare, and interpret the cases to generate cross-case themes, patterns, and findings.

Content analysis is used to refer to any qualitative data reduction and sense-making effort that takes a volume of qualitative material and attempts to identify core consistencies and meanings, often called patterns or themes (p. 453):
 * __ Pattern, Theme, and Content Analysis __**


 * Pattern recognition is the ability to see patterns in seemingly random information. It usually refers to a descriptive finding (ex. “almost all participants reported feeling fear when they rappelled down the cliff.”
 * Theme takes a more categorical or topical form: ex. Fear


 * __ Inductive and Deductive Qualitative Analyses __**


 * Inductive analysis involves discovering patterns, themes, and categories in one’s data. Findings emerge out of the data, through the analyst’s interactions with the data
 * Deductive analysis occurs where the data are analyzed according to an existing framework

Qualitative analysis is typically inductive in the early stages, and may be deductive in the confirmatory stage in testing and affirming the authenticity and appropriateness of the inductive content analysis (p. 454).

A good place to begin inductive analysis is to inventory and define key phrases, terms, and practices that are special to the people in the setting studied. Analyzing indigenous practices begins by understanding them from the perspective of the practitioners, within the indigenous context, words, language, and world-view (p. 455).
 * __ Indigenous Concepts and Practices __**

Refer to categories that the //analyst brings to the data//—Experienced observers often use sensitizing concepts to orient fieldwork. It involves examining how the concept is manifest and given meaning in a particular setting or among a particular group of people.
 * __ Sensitizing Concepts __**

Note: the analyst uses concepts to help make sense of and present the data, but not to the point of straining or forcing the analysis—//What people actually say and the descriptions of events observed remain the essence of qualitative inquiry// (p. 457).


 * __ Indigenous Typologies __**
 * Typologies are classification systems made up of categories that divide some aspect of the world into parts along a continuum. They are built on ideal-types or illustrative endpoints rather than a complete and discrete set of categories (p. 457).
 * Groups, cultures, organizations, and families develop their own language systems to emphasize distinctions they consider important. For analysts to fully understand the setting, it is necessary to understand these terms and their implications.

The analyst, through inductive analysis, takes on the task of identifying and making explicit patterns that appear to exist but remain unperceived by the people studied. A series of patterns is distilled into contrasting themes that create alternative ideal-types. Constructing ideal-types or alternative paradigms is one simple form of presenting qualitative comparisons. NOTE: See examples on pgs. 460-462.
 * __ Analyst-Constructed Typologies __**


 * __ Coding Data, Finding Patterns, Labeling Themes, and Developing Category Systems __**

Developing some manageable classification or coding scheme is the first step of analysis. It involves identifying, coding, categorizing, classifying, and labeling the primary patterns in the data. This means analyzing the core content of interviews and observations to determine what’s significant. This can be done manually or using software programs.


 * __ Convergence and Divergence in Coding and Classifying __**

In developing codes and categories, a qualitative analyst deals with the challenges of convergence and divergence:


 * Convergence: figuring out what things fit together. Begin by looking for recurring regularities in the data. These regularities reveal patterns that can be sorted into categories.
 * Categories should then be judged by internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity.
 * Internal homogeneity: extent to which data that belong in a certain category hold together or “dovetail” in a meaningful way.
 * External heterogeneity: extent to which differences among categories are bold and clear.
 * Existence of large number of unassignable/overlapping data is good evidence of some basic fault in the category system. (See p. 466 for completeness tests.)

In lieu of statistical significance, qualitative findings are judged by their substantive significance (p. 467):
 * __ Determining Substantive Significance __**
 * How solid, coherent, and consistent is the evidence in support of the findings?
 * To what extent and in what ways do the findings increase and deepen understanding of the phenomenon studied?
 * To what extent are the findings consistent with other knowledge?
 * To what extent are the findings useful for some intended purpose?


 * __ Logical Analysis __**

The logical process involves creating potential categories by crossing one dimension or typology with another, and then working back and forth between the data and one’s logical constructions, filling in the resulting matrix. This logical system will create a new typology, all parts of which may or may not actually be represented in the data (See Exhibit 8.8, p. 469).

The analyst moves back and forth between the logical construction and the actual data in a search for meaningful patterns.


 * __ A Process/Outcomes Matrix __** : Organizes data to illustrate the linkage between processes and outcomes (See Exhibit 8.10, p. 473).

Agnes (pages 473 through 493)
 * An analysis example: recognizing processes, outcomes, and linkages in qualitative data_** program process and Program outcome in evaluation research concepts recognizes the program process, the process of identifying and labeling program processes as a critical evaluation skill. It captures some subtle variations of recognizing processes. Qualitative analysis work back and forth between the data in the conception of what is needed to express a process; it observed interactions, and program content. The process/outcomes matrix becomes a way of asking questions of data, additional resource will focus on beans and patterns of field notes and interviewed transcriptions.


 * Interpreting finds_** a qualitative researcher interprets the beliefs and behaviors of participants.

• narrative analysis plan (interpret stories, life history narratives, etc..) • qualitative inquiry (honors people’s stories as description of experience or connections between the physiological, sociological, and etc..).
 * Interpreting for meanings_** qualitative interpretation begins w/explaining meaning. The analyst examines the story, a case study, a set of interviews, our collection of fuel notes and asks, what does this mean? What does that tell me about the nature of the phenomenon of interests? In the ms in his or her on perspective and understanding will make a sense of the evidence.

• making the obvious obvious • making the obvious dubious • making many in obvious this captures 1) come from what we know that is supported by data, 2) disabuse us out of misconceptions, and 3) and inmates important things that we did not know which should know.
 * Comparisons, causes, consequences, and relationships­_** describes the themes, patterns, activities and contents of a study rather than planning casual linkages between processes and outcomes. It describes typologies between developed and supported, tasks of organization and description to make comparisons and considering causes, the consequences, and relationships. Using one of three forms:


 * Theory-based analysis approaches_** examines how certain theological and physiological prospectors of that analysis. Uses two contrasting approaches which are phenomenological analysis and grounded theory.

• interpretive forms • objectifying quality • non-objectifying quality • epoche
 * Phenomenological analysis_** seeks to grasp and explained the meaning, structure, and essence of the lived experience of a phenomenon for a person or group of people.

Where the researcher chooses a theoretical framework, and only then applies this model to the phenomenon to be studied by. 1) The ability to step back and critically analyze situations, 2) the ability to recognize that tendencies toward biases, 3) the ability to think abstractly; 4) the ability to be flexible and open to a healthful criticism; 5) sensitivity to the words and actions of respondents and ; 6) a sense of absorption and devotion to work processes (Strauss and Corbin 1998: 7).
 * Grounded theory_** denotes a set of well-developed categories (ie themes, concepts) which are systematically interrelated through statements of relationship to from a theological framework that explains relevant social, physiological, educational, and etc..) The statement of relationship explains who, what, when, where, why, how, and with what consequences an event occurs. It offers an explanation about phenomena. The first step is data collection, through a variety of methods. From these concepts, categories are formed, which are the basis for the creation of a theory, or a reverse engineered hypothesis.

Jose (pages 494 through 514)

Martie (pages 515 through 534)

Appendix 8.1 Example of Codebook to use by Multiple Coders (Referred to on page 464 - coding systems help in analysis of data)

Appendix 8.2 Example of Illustrative Case Study (chronological order of observed and assessed events)

Appendix 8.3 Example of Illustrative Interview Analysis (Interviews conducted and responses categorized, analysis was done by topic)