ELEMENT 5 Observation and document analysis

5: OBSERVATION AND DOCUMENT

ANALYSIS
Jon Prosser

Introduction
The last Element introduced you to a range of methods of collecting
qualitative data. This Element will continue that theme by looking at two
more ways of collecting data and at what you can do with that data once
you have collected it. This Element is divided into 3 sections.

• Section 1: observation
• Section 2: making use of documents from the research site.
• Section 3: analysing the resultant data.

By the end of the Element you should:

• be able to use your research question(s) to focus your observations
• be able to decide what aspects of your study are most suitable for
observational methods
• be able to decide how to record your observations
• be able to distinguish between the strengths and weaknesses of the
different methods of recording data
• be able to decide what particular role you (the observer) will play
during observation
• have gained practical experience of observation
• have gained experience in analysing observational and document
based data.

R Recommended reading for this Element

The recommended readings in this Element come from these three
books.
Bell, J (1999) Doing Your Research Project, 3rd Edition.
Open University Press.
Hopkins, D (2002) A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research,
Open University Press
Cohen, L., (2000) Research Methods in Education, 5th Edition,
Manion, L and London. RoutledgeFalmer.
Morrison K

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Section 1: Observation
The first major point to note is that schools and colleges are busy places.
A great deal can be observed there. The first thing you must decide is,
'What am I going to observe?'. As always, such decisions will be
determined by the underlying research purpose which requires that some
form of observation needs to be undertaken. The sort of research
questions where some form of observation would be appropriate are:
• Do children in mixed classes behave differently from those in single
sex classes?
• What sorts of interaction takes place between teachers and pupils?
• What proportion of teacher time is spent on task?
• At what time in the day/week are teachers most busy and what do
they do at these times?
See your answers None of these questions can be sensibly explored without observing the
to activity 1 page situation. Remember that observation is particularly important because
2.6 it has the potential to give us insights into what people actually do rather
than what they say they do or what they think they do. In Element 2 you
determined your research topic and went on to decide your research
question(s) and the issues that your study would explore. Look back at
these now and identify what particular aspects could usefully be
explored using observation. Remember that observation is only one of a
number of techniques that may be used to collect data. Remember too
that it would be unusual, indeed unwise, to rely on only one method of
data collection and that observational work should be used to
complement other methods.
R Reading
Have a look at Chapter 7 of Hopkin’s book – methods of observation in
classroom research

T Task 1
Make a brief list here of those aspects of your research
question(s) that you feel are most appropriate for observation.

F Feedback on Task 1

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If our research question were The induction of new teaching staff in

Chalfont School during 1995 a number of possibilities for observation
would be available. We could, for example, choose to observe:
• the first day of the induction programme
• pre-determined sessions such as discussion groups or short talks by
department heads
• informal periods such as teachers during their coffee break

Recording Data
See Element 3 Given that the research purpose defines the focus, the next question is,
'How will I record my observational data?' There are, essentially, four
main methods of collecting information.
• via memory
• via written notes
• via pre-determined schedules
• via mechanical devices – audio/video tape, camera

R Reading
Read page 188 of Cohen, Manion and Morrison’s book for some good
tips on recording observational data.

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Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. Thus:

• Memory is unobtrusive and helps retain the ‘naturalness’ of the event
being observed. But its limits are in the amount that can be
remembered and the accuracy of that memory.
• Written notes are very adaptable to different circumstances, but they
may suffer from limited reliability (i.e. would another researcher
make similar observations and notes of a similar event?)
• Pre-determined schedules are reliable, but may not fit exactly the
specific circumstances of any given observation.
See Element 4 for • Mechanical devices provide very full and reliable evidence but can
more information be very intrusive. They are also time consuming to analyse. A further,
on ways to record purely practical, difficulty is that camcorders, cameras and tape
data. recorders may break down or simply not function at all. So it is a wise
precaution to have a backup of some sort such as written notes.

Participant observation
Element 6, Section Whatever form of recording you use, any visit to a teaching environment
3 goes into validity will disrupt the very activity you wish to observe. This creates problems
in greater detail of validity. In other words, does the situation you are observing describe
or reflect what it is supposed to describe or reflect? This effect is likely
to be strongest (and your data least reliable) when you first start your
observation. It is best to make your observation a regular event, so that
whatever you observe can settle down to being 'normal'. So remember
not to rely on initial data. Wait until your participants have, at least to a
degree, accepted the situation.

When observing a situation or event those being observed may be

nervous or seek to put up a ‘front’ of some sort. Since ‘naturalness’ is
important to any qualitative research you should consider ways of
preserving or encouraging it. You could act covertly so that participants
That researcher are unaware that they are being observed. However, this raises ethical
lady thinks we questions which should be addressed before such a stance is taken.
can’t see her Alternatively you could operate overtly, such that participants are aware
that they are being observed.

The role you play whilst collecting data is often referred to as

‘participant-observer’ role. Participant-observation is often associated
with an ethnographic style of research. This means that the researcher
joins a group or organization, participating to a greater or lesser extent in
what they are doing. The researcher is then in a good position to observe
patterns of social interaction and to talk informally with participants. The
researcher shares as intimately as possible in the life and activities of
those they are studying. The aim is to gain the deepest possible
understanding of the research participant’s meanings and perspectives

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within their normal social context. Of course this can go too far.
Anthropologists have a term, 'going native’, to describe a researcher who
gets so involved and active with subjects that their original intentions get
lost.

Think about your own research project and consider carefully where on
the participant-observer continuum you wish to be when you are doing
your own observation. You could, for example, carry on your normal
duties whilst making notes occasionally in a hard-backed book
(emphasizing the participant role). Alternatively, you could take a ‘fly-
on-the-wall’ approach and using a structured observation record what is
happening on a clipboard for a designated period of time (emphasizing
the observer role).

T Task 2

Now have another look at chapter 7 of David Hopkins’s book A

Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research. Use this information to
help you make the following decisions about your own research
project.

1. Will you be carrying out covert or overt observation, or a

combination of the two in your research? Give reasons for your
choice.

2. What sort of participant-observer role will you adopt whilst

observing?

3. What steps will you take to ensure a degree of ‘naturalness’ is

present during your observation?

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F Feedback on Task 2

1. This is not an easy question to answer and researchers take different

stances on this sensitive issue. One approach could be, given the
above research question, to simply to adopt an ‘up front’ or overt
approach and seek the help and support of those people who run the
programme and also those who participate in it. The overt option
would perhaps be less appropriate if we were going to evaluate the
induction programme or if the research question were particularly
sensitive.
2. Exactly where on the participant–observer continuum your role will
be will depend on the answer to the next question.
3. This is an important question. One way of ensuring a degree of
naturalness in your study would be to go through the course yourself
as though you were a teacher being inducted. Another approach
would be to actually teach some parts of the programme so that you
could find out ‘first-hand’ what it is like to experience such a
programme in one way or another. In this way you become part of
what you are observing and not an object of curiosity or a ‘spy’.

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Observation schedules
You have made some very important decisions by this stage but it is
worth remembering that they are not written on tablets of stone. You can
alter them when further information is taken into consideration. Before
you carry out your observation:
• use your research question to decide the focus of your observations
• give some thought to the sorts of observations that will be useful to
your research
• before you collect any data, make sampling decisions, i.e. who, what,
where, and when to collect data. Think carefully about these since in
your final report you will need to justify why, for example, you have
selected those particular people to observe at that particular time.
Finally, you should decide how you intend to record the event you wish
to observe and you should have your memory, notebook, schedule, tape
recorder, camera and/or camcorder at the ready.

Let us now consider in a little more detail the process of recording

observational data using a schedule.

Perhaps one of the most common mistakes in carrying out observations

is doing so without focussing. This leads to difficulties in sampling
decisions but more importantly it means the data are extremely difficult
to analyse. A good way of both focussing your observations and aiding
the recording of data is to use an observation schedule. If you work out
in advance what you want to observe, you can develop a detailed
schedule which itemises the various categories to be used in collecting
the observational record. If you do this you should take care to identify
the categories which differentiate between different sorts of data. When
devising categories make sure they meet the following key criteria:
• the definition of each item must be unambiguous to allow for records
to be taken without disagreement on whether a particular aspect of
behaviour falls into one category or another
• that the set of categories used covers all the behaviours with which
the research is concerned.

It follows from these two that there must be no overlap between

categories. It is worth trialling an observation schedule before using it in
earnest. Give a colleague a copy of your schedule. Then both observe the
same event. Check afterwards to see whether you have both put the same
observations in the same categories.

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Observation schedules are not easy to use and some practice is required
in order to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and how best to
apply them. The next task will give you some practice in this.

T Task 3

Suppose we wish to research off-task behaviour of

administrators in the Education system. Clearly observation
would be play an important role in such a study.

We want you to collect observational data for this study using the
schedule on the next page. But before you start, think about how
you are actually going to do this in practice. If you choose to tell
the administrators exactly what you intend to observe then you
would probably find that they all work diligently on task for the
period of observation. Your data may not be valid or reliable. But
suppose you choose not to tell them what you are doing. If you
then stand over them with pen poised over clipboard, they are
going to wonder what you are doing and you will be in an ethical
Have they gone quandary.
yet?

One way out of this impasse would be to ask for their permission
to observe them for a short amount of time, for example 10
minutes. You could (correctly) say it is for a course you are doing
and you could state in general terms what you will be observing,
for example ' I want to get a picture of the sort of things you do
during an ordinary day’. The process of obtaining permission to
collect data is called accessing and the first practical step in
obtaining your data is always to gain access to people, places or
events, to get permission to observe or interview people.

For this particular task try to find a friendly administrator who will
be willing to act as a '
guinea pig’ for you - but if this is impossible
look for anyone who is carrying out a specific task. It does not
matter much what the task is. Anyone carrying out any task is
likely to spend some time off-task.

All you have to do is scan one person (or more if you feel
confident) over a period of ten minutes noting down what they are
doing in the categories which follow:

1. talking not related to the task in hand

2. doodling
3. daydreaming
4. wandering around
5. working at other tasks unrelated to the task in hand

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6. interacting with other people not related to the task in hand

7. using a pencil sharpener, looking for a pen, throwing paper
away etc
8. other

As an example of the sort of data you will obtain the schedule for
administrator Joan is given:

Administrator:
Time (minutes) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Off-task activity

We can see that Joan was on task for 4 of the 10 minutes (during
the 3rd, 4th, 8th and 10th minutes) and that for the remaining six
minutes Joan was off-task. Remember to include an ‘other’
category (here it was no. 8) in case some observations cannot be
placed in the designated category list. It is worth noting that some
categories are not easy to apply, for example, during the second
minute how can we be sure that Joan is daydreaming since she
may have been thinking and therefore on task.

This type of observation is of particular pertinence to the

classroom; observing teachers, classroom assistants, pupils and
groups of pupils reveals a great deal about teaching and learning.

Now you try. Carefully select someone and use the schedule to
collect data on one subject. Use the space below to record your
findings.

F Feedback on Task 3

This is a matter of putting the scheme into practice.

T Task 4

Now read Chapter 11 of Judith Bell’s (1999) book Doing Your

Research Project, which is concerned with observational studies.
Take particular notice of the checklist on pages 166-167.

When you have absorbed this material, select and observe some
event related to your research topic. You may wish to carry out

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more than one observation which will provide you with insights or
answers to your research question. Record your findings here.

F Feedback on Task 3

This is a matter of devising a scheme and putting it into practice.

Section 2: documents
Documents broadly include any papers, especially official ones, which
provide more or less direct evidence of decisions, transactions, status,
thoughts, debates or actions, which are directly or indirectly related to
the purpose of a research inquiry. Documents may be contemporary or
historical in nature and include both text and visual data. Documents
which are considered primary sources of data would include, for
example, annual reports, minutes of meetings, personal diaries,
memoranda, records, letters, files, institutional prospectuses, videos,
photographs, diagrams, or catalogues.
Documents are a useful source of evidence but they have their
limitations. One problem with them is that we may not know how they
came into being in the first place or who wrote them. Another problem is
pointed out by Andrew (1985) who makes an important point with
regard to ‘complete’ records:

Documents have differential survival rates and those

which survive do not always provide all the information
required....The answers to a great many questions are
simply not available, since the necessary records either
never existed or failed to survive. (p. 156)

T Task 5

About 40 minutes Think about your research question again. Make a list of the sorts
work of document you could find within your working environment which

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might be relevant to your study. Note down any problems you

foresee in gaining access to these documents or using them in
your study. For example, are there any restrictions on your
publishing them?

An example of analysing documents

Later, in Section 3, we will consider in some depth ways of analysing
qualitative data. However, it is worth gaining experience of obtaining
documents and making sense of them. Let us consider the way teachers
communicate with those outside the institutions or organisations they
work for. Of course they communicate in a variety of ways, both verbal
and non-verbal. Let us first consider written communications, i.e.
documents, which are sent from the school/college to the outside world.
Our research question might be concerned with information about how
parents or guardians of reception class children are prepared prior to
their arrival at a primary school. We could identify, for example, letters
to parents or guardians of children who are soon to be admitted to the
school. The first task would be to obtain copies of the documents sent to
potential parents or guardians. This may not be as simple as it sounds
since different sorts of information may need to be sent to different
people. In other words there may not be a 'standard’ letter.

Having obtained the documents, we need to make sense of or analyse

them. Let us suppose that we are particularly interested in the language
used when writing to potential parents or guardians. Suppose, too, that
we are using a definition of 'language' which includes any diagrams or
photographs enclosed. How are we going to analyse them? What are we
going to look for? In order to decide this we need to think about our
purpose in carrying out this piece of research.

Our research question is concerned with communication. However, this

is a very broad and unfocussed term. We could narrow it down by
looking at a particular aspect of communication, for example 'factual
information’. Equally, we may have good reason to want to explore this
type of communication in general terms. If so, we should simply
approach the data without any particular prior concerns. Let us make
things hard for ourselves and take the latter stance.

The next step is to ask a range of questions of the documents before us.
We could begin by making the following kinds of quantitative analysis:
• approximately how many words are there per page?
• how many paragraphs are there per page?

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• How readable is the document. There are many ways of calculating

this. A nice, simple yet effective one is by using the SMOG formula.
The number of words of three or more syllables in every thirty
sentences equals P. Reading Age = P+8.
• How is the space utilised? Compare the proportion of text to
photographs, lists, diagrams, etc.
• What percentage of the document is given over to welcoming and
reassuring the potential parent or guardian of the child about to be
enrolled in the school? Compare this with the percentage of
instructions and lists (for example, what uniform or P.E. kit parents
and guardians may need to buy before school term starts).
• Next we could look at the ‘tone’ of the document:
• Are there any words which are 'technical’ and if so are they
explained?
• What is the general tone of the document, e.g. ‘cold’, ‘officious’,
‘neutral’, ‘warm’, ‘welcoming’?
• Is the document signed by a member of staff or has a rubber stamp of
some sort been used?
• How has the document been duplicated? Is it a stencil copy, a
photocopy or has it been produced on a laser printer?

Obviously, we could go further with our analysis by exploring the actual

content of the document and considering how effective it is in preparing
the potential parent or guardian for their child’s entrance to school. Our
analysis would raise questions which would need to be answered by
further data collection. We could interview the author of the document to
find out what they intended to achieve when they wrote it. Also we could
identify a sample of potential parents or guardians and ask them for their
views on the document. In this way we would be able to compare and
contrast the differing perspectives.

Analysing participant observation and document-

based data
In general, the comments that follow could be said to be true of
analysing any qualitative data. Although here we will use the term
analysis, a friendlier and perhaps less threatening term might be
interpretation. It is important to remember that although qualitative data
is descriptive you must go beyond simple description and provide
interpretations of your data. Being analytical is central to being a
researcher.

Observational data, like other forms of qualitative data, are not looked
upon favorably by all researchers, particularly when viewed from a
scientific perspective. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000) say:

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The accounts that typically emerge from participant

observations are often described as subjective, biased,
impressionistic, idiosyncratic and lacking in the precise
quantifiable measures that are the hallmark of survey
research and experimentation. (p. 313)
The quote above represents a ‘scientific’ perspective of participant
observation. Johnson (1984) gives an alternative perspective:
In qualitative research the work is intended to be
intensive and illuminative and will not usually lay claim
to being representative and generalisable. In
summary, the main requirement in qualitative research
designs is to give oneself the chance to be enlightened
and to avoid a research situation which rules out
exploration and open mindedness. (p. 22)

In analysing data collected through observation we are essentially

looking for patterns in order to build up a picture of the phenomena
observed. We need this picture to be in some sense typical or
characteristic. As the quotation from Johnson makes clear, claims about
the typicality of the phenomena observed can be made only in terms of
'the case' being researched. However, readers of an account of case-
study research may generalise from the particular sample to a wider
population by relating the events portrayed to their own experience.
Therefore, it is important to be clear from the beginning about the kind
of claims you want to make about the data you have collected by
observation.
In participant observation you collect the data you gain from the
observation of subjects in the form of a schedule, field-notes, or a
research diary. Then you add to them continuously over the research
period to build up a picture of the phenomena. The 'off-task’ schedule
that you used earlier could be the basis of a number of observations
which would include a 10 minute slot each half-day throughout the
working week or a variety of half days during a week throughout a year.
In this way we can build up a picture of 'off-task’ behaviour over a
weekly or yearly period. This may tell us something about the annual
working pattern of an administrator or what parts of the day/week/year
they work most effectively.
An important aspect of participant observation is that it is unusual to
leave the data lying dormant, as it were, to be analysed only at the end of
the fieldwork period. Continual reading through and reflection on the
schedules, videos or field-notes will often highlight issues worthy of
further investigation. For example, you might note from your
observations that a particular college administrator uses mornings to
carry out the bulk of their work, leaving afternoons more flexible and
therefore with potential for socializing. You may then want to go on to
collect further data to either substantiate or refute this working
hypothesis, or to carry out an in-depth interview with the administrator

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on this particular issue. So, as you can see, researchers make sense of
their data soon after they have collected it. This enables them to refine
the focus of their study
The ongoing analysis of data gathered through observations and field-
notes is used to help progressive focussing and in generating grounded
theory which explains the phenomena observed. Progressive focussing
is the continual funnelling process which limits and clarifies the scope,
subject and structure of a research project. In this process it is not
uncommon for the initial research question to be transformed almost
beyond recognition. The fieldwork may increasingly reveal that this
question simply did not address the issue that was fundamental to the
problem under review. Grounded theorising is the ongoing process of
developing hunches, ideas and interpretations of the data. These serve to
guide data collection and are refuted, or substantiated and developed, in
the light of the new data collected. Theory building and data collection
can therefore be viewed as interrelated.
Remember that it is important in doing this kind of analysis to be alert to
the danger of 'going native'. This involves getting so caught up in the
events that you are supposed to be researching that you fail to examine
them critically and take for granted the very phenomena that should be
regarded as problematic. Teachers and others working in the education
system carry out research into aspects of their own work and this has
helped to improve practice. However, practitioners frequently take their
everyday practice for granted and they may be blinkered by prior
assumptions and personal values. This is why it is vital to use a
structured approach (a research approach) to making sense of data. A
way of avoiding the charge of being blinkered by prior assumptions is by
searching for exceptions or negative cases which disprove previously
held or emerging hypotheses - a process referred to as analytical
induction in the methodology literature. It is a useful exercise to try to
find ways of making the familiar strange or providing yourself with
different frameworks for thinking about your data.
It is important not to put off analysing your data until after you have left
the field. There are two good reasons for this. First of all, you will be
collecting quite a lot of data and if you leave analysis until the last
moment you will find it a daunting, if not psychologically damaging,
process. The second reason is that analysis in the field helps focus
further data collection and refine emerging ideas and concepts.
Therefore, as your data come in, try to make sense of them as soon as
possible. You will probably find it helpful to adopt the following
approach.

• Force yourself to make decisions about the type of study you want to
accomplish.
• Force yourself to make decisions that narrow the study.
• Develop analytic questions.

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• Plan data collection sessions in the light of what you have found in
previous data collection.
• Bring together in a field diary what you are learning from the various
sorts of data you collect.
• Try out your ideas on key informants.
• Begin exploring the literature while you are in the field.

Practical guidelines for interpreting qualitative data

Remember that your analysis must be effective. This means that whether
you are interpreting observational, documentary, interview or
questionnaire data you must always bear in mind that:
1. data analysis is more than description; it involves interpretation
2. for the purpose of research, interpretation must be systematic and
reliable
3. there should be coherence of interpretation, i.e. interpretation should
reflect patterns in the data.

Once you have got your information from a series of interviews/

observations/ questionnaires/documents, you face two main tasks. These
are:

• to seek similarities where these exist

• to identify diversity and variation around the common features.

Now you can go on to analyse your data. You will find this easier if you
follow the steps outlined below. But remember that you have already
done some preliminary analysis. You have already made decisions about
what to observe, what questions to ask, and whom to interview.

Steps in data analysis

This is also considered in Element 6a.
1. Your data must have a purpose – to satisfy your research question.
Your research question may involve a range of subsidiary questions.
Code the data in terms of relevance to these subsidiary questions.
Some data may be relevant to more than one. This first stage provides
you with the basis for deriving an overall picture of the sets of data,
e.g. all teachers expressed anxiety about changes being made in the
funding of the education service but there was variation in the sources
of such anxiety.

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2. The second stage is to look in more detail at the emergent pattern. Are
there any sub-patterns? For the above example, what forms of
anxiety have been expressed and how is each one constituted? Are
some of these forms of anxiety more widespread than others?

Remember to code positive and negative data, e.g. while many

teachers admitted to anxiety about funding changes, a number were
enthusiastic about the prospect.
3. Also look for patterns in terms of who is saying what, e.g. differences
between teachers from different schools, or differences between
comments made by senior and junior teachers, or teachers from
different year groups or different disciplines.
4. The next two stages involve looking more critically at the data. Look
for omissions. Were there things that you expected to come up which
did not? For example no teacher mentioned the prospect of losing
their jobs as a source of anxiety. Such omissions are useful in that
they help you to reflect on the quality of the data. Is there any reason
for feeling that participants were unprepared to comment on such a
topic? Why did you, the interviewer, originally expect this to be an
issue? Were there any issues for which you were unprepared? Do
they need following up in any way?
5. Test the rules by which you have coded the data. Describe these rules
to a friend or colleague. Show him or her an unmarked sample of the
data you have analysed and ask them to analyse the data according to
your rules. (There is clear scope for team co-operation here). Any
substantial variation in the patterns produced is worrying and will
require a re-examination of the rules by which you are operating. In
any event, you should try to discuss your plans for data analysis with
your tutor.
6. Have a 'rag-bag' category for data which do not demonstrably relate
to your research question. This may be a fruitful source of data as
your research proceeds.
Your aim here is to render data into a manageable form. You want this
form to be conducive to critical reflection and deeper understanding. The
process of analysis is a difficult and demanding one so it is extremely
important to give it the maximum time and effort necessary to make sure
that your final research account is not merely a description of events,
however lucid and well-ordered this might be. Try to consider the
relationship between the findings on the various issues you have
identified. For example you may find that contradictions emerge. You
must try to explain these. Also you may find that your findings can be
compared with those of related research and. Then you can look for
explanations for similarities and differences. Another way of analysing
data is to consider how findings at the local, micro-level of an institution
or organisation relate to national, macro-level events.

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T Task 6

The data you have collected do not automatically provide your

answers. You need to interpret your raw information. As a
researcher your next task is to make sense of it.

Note down your interpretations of the data you have collected by

observation and then use these notes to explain how your findings
relate to your research question(s).

S Summary

In this Element we have considered three important issues. The first two
sections were concerned with data collection techniques – observation
and documents – and both approaches are capable of yielding good
quality evidence. We also looked at how to record data, in particular the
limitations and strengths of each of the approaches. Finally, we
discussed analysis, initially in general terms and later in a more
pragmatic way.
Analysis and making sense of data collected are fundamental to the
research enterprise. They are also perhaps the most difficult aspects of
the process. Many researchers, even experienced ones, struggle with
interpreting the data. It is natural that you too may at first find this aspect
difficult and frustrating. Don’t be scared of ‘wrestling with the data’. The
most important thing to remember is that you must immerse yourself in
the data as soon as possible. Do not put off analysing them.
A good way of forcing yourself to analyse is to start writing. The act of
writing, of putting your ideas down on paper, forces you to organise
them – to analyse them.

R References

Johnson, D ‘Planning small-scale research,' in Bell, J et al (Eds)

(1984), Conducting Small-Scale Investigations in
Educational Management, Open University.

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ELEMENT 5 Observation and document analysis

You might like to follow these up as extended reading.

Andrew, A (1985) ‘In pursuit of the past: some problems in the

collection, analysis and use of historical
documents,’ In Burgess, R (Ed) Strategies in
Educational Research. Sussex, Falmer Press.
370.78 BUR

Both the following books contain a chapter discussing the process of

analysis using data from participant observation:

Hammersley, (1983) Ethnography: Principles in Practice,

M, and Tavistock. 370.78 Ham
Atkinson, P,
Wood, P (1986) Inside Schools, Routledge

5.18