MODULE 6: ANALYSING QUALITATIVE DATA

Learning targets
By the end of this module, students will be able to:
- Identify the steps in analysing qualitative research
- Identify what makes a code and different methods of coding
- Recognize the differences between inductive and deductive coding
- Analyse qualitative data using various ways to code data
- Analyse qualitative data following steps of thematic analysis
- Recognise various ways to increase the reliability and validity of qualitative findings

Keywords
Qualitative data analysis, code, coding, inductive coding, deductive coding, descriptive codimg, nvivo
coding, versus coding, eclectic coding, thematic analysis, themes, categories, reliability and validity,
triangulation
References
Castleberry, A., & Nolen, A. (2018). Thematic analysis of qualitative research data: Is it as easy as it
sounds?. Currents in pharmacy teaching and learning, 10(6), 807-815.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. SAGE publications.
Clarke, V., Braun, V., & Hayfield, N. (2015). Thematic analysis. Qualitative psychology: A practical
guide to research methods, 222, 248.
Mai Skjott Linneberg, Steffen Korsgaard, (2019). Coding qualitative data: a synthesis guiding the
novice. Qualitative Research Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-12-2018-0012
Saldaña, J. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.

Video:
https://gradcoach.com/qualitative-data-analysis-methods/
 MODULE 6.1. OVERVIEW OF QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

1. WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS?

Qualitative data analysis is the process of examining and interpreting qualitative data to understand what
it represents. Qualitative data is defined as any non-numerical and unstructured data. For example, when
looking at customer feedback, qualitative data usually refers to any verbatim or text-based feedback such
as reviews, complaints, chat messages, customer interviews, case notes or social media posts.

2. TYPES OF QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

Once the data has been captured, there are a variety of analysis techniques available and the choice is
determined by your specific research objectives and the kind of data you’ve gathered. Common
approaches include:
Thematic analysis
When data is analysed by theme, it is called thematic analysis. This type of analysis is highly inductive,
that is, the themes emerge from the data and are not imposed upon it by the researcher. In this type of
analysis, the data collection and analysis take place simultaneously. Even background reading can form
part of the analysis process, especially if it can help to explain an emerging theme.
Comparative analysis
Closely connected to thematic analysis is comparative analysis. Using this method, data from different
people is compared and contrasted and the process continues until the researcher is satisfied that no new
issues are arising. Comparative and thematic analyses are often used in the same project, with the
researcher moving backwards and forwards between transcripts, memos, notes and the research literature.
Content analysis
Using content analysis method, the researcher systematically works through each transcript assigning
codes, which may be numbers or words, to specific characteristics within the text. The researcher may
already have a list of categories or she may read through each transcript and let the categories emerge
from the data. This type of analysis can be used for open-ended questions which have been added to
questionnaires in large quantitative surveys, thus enabling the researcher to quantify the answers.
Discourse analysis
Falling in the middle of the qualitative analysis continuum is discourse analysis, which some researchers
have named conversational analysis. These methods look at patterns of speech, such as how people talk
about a particular subject, what metaphors they use, how they take turns in conversation, and so on. These
analysts see speech as a performance; it performs an action rather than describes a specific state of affairs
or specific state of mind. Much of this analysis is intuitive and reflective, but it may also involve some
form of counting, such as counting instances of turn-taking and their influence on the conversation and
the way in which people speak to others.

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3. PROCEDURE OF QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
The diagram below summarises the procedure of qualitative data analysis. These steps can be slightly
different in different approaches towards qualitative data analysis

(Creswell, 2014, p. 191)

4. WHAT IS CODING AND WHAT IS A CODE?

Coding in its most basic form is the simple operation of identifying segments of meaning in your data
and labeling them with a code, which can be defined as “a word or short phrase that symbolically
assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-
based or visual data” (Saldaña, 2015, p. 3). There are some advantages of coding:
• Acquire deep, comprehensive and thorough insights into your data
• Make the data easily accessible and retrievable
• Sorting and structuring your data
• Ensuring transparency
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 • Ensuring validity
The action of coding requires the researcher to ask specific questions of the data as appropriate.
• What is happening in the text?
• Who are the actors and what are their roles?
• When is it happening? (preceding event, during event, reaction to event, etc.)
• Where is it happening?
• What are the explicit and implicit reasons why it is happening?
• How is it happening? (process or strategy)
A code in qualitative inquiry is most often a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative,
salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data. The
data can consist of interview transcripts, participant observation field notes, journals, documents,
drawings, artifacts, photographs, video, Internet sites, e-mail correspondence, literature, and so on.
How can you know that this is a relevant code? The following table contains examples of research titles,
elements to be coded and identification of relevant codes:
Research title Elements to be Codes
coded
Born or bred: revising The Great Man Leadership Born leaders
theory of leadership in the 21st century practice Made leaders

Leadership effectiveness
A study into advantages and Market entry Wholly-owned subsidiaries
disadvantages of various entry strategies Joint-ventures
strategies to Chinese market
Franchising

Exporting

Licensing

An investigation into the ways of Tactics Viral messages

customer relationship management in Customer retention
mobile marketing environment
Popularity of social networking sites

5. DIFFERENT TYPES OF CODES

There are many types of codes, but below are the most commonly used ones:

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 ● descriptive coding: summarizes the primary topic of the excerpt
● in vivo coding: using the participants' own language
● eclectic coding: applying “first-impression” phrases
● versus coding: appropriate for policy studies, evaluation research, critical discourse analysis, and
qualitative data sets that suggest strong conflicts or competing goals within, among, and between
participants.
In the following example, the oneword capitalized code in the right column is called a Descriptive Code,
which summarizes the primary topic of the excerpt:
1 I notice that the grand majority of homes have chain link fences in front 1 SECURITY
of them. There are many dogs (mostly German shepherds) with signs on
fences that say “Beware of the Dog.”

Here is an example of several codes applied to data from an interview transcript in which a high school
senior describes his favorite teacher. The codes are based on what outcomes the student receives from
his mentor. Note that one of the codes is taken directly from what the participant himself says and is
placed in quotation marks – this is called an In Vivo Code:

1 He cares about me. He has never told me but he does. 2 He’s always 1 SENSE OF SELF-
been there for me, even when my parents were not. He’s one of the few WORTH
things that I hold as a constant in my life. So it’s nice. 3 I really feel 2 STABILITY
comfortable around him 3 “COMFORTABLE”

In the excerpt below, a mother describes her teenage son’s troubled school years. The codes emerge
from the perspective of middle- and junior high school years as a difficult period for most youth. They
are not specific types of codes; they are “first-impression” phrases derived from an open-ended process
called Eclectic Coding:

1 My son, Barry, went through a really tough time about, probably started 1 MIDDLE-SCHOOL
the end of fifth grade and went into HELL sixth grade. 2 When he was 2 TEACHER’S PET
growing up young in school he was a people-pleaser and his teachers
loved him to death. 3 Two boys in particular that he chose to try to 3 BAD INFLUENCES
emulate, wouldn’t, were not very good for him. 4 They were very critical
of him, they put him down all the time, and he kind of just took that and 4 TWEEN ANGST
really kind of internalized it, I think, for a long time. 5 In that time period,
in the fifth grade, early sixth grade, they really just kind of shunned him 5 THE LOST BOY
all together, and so his network as he knew it was gone.

In versus coding, conflicting personnel, perspectives, policies, philosophies, curricula, practices, etc.,
when present in the data corpus from the study illustrated above, were coded as dichotomies, ranging
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from the actual to the conceptual:

STATE VS. DISTRICT

GRADUATION REQUIREMENT VS. ELECTIVE
IVORY TOWER VS. INNER CITY
PRESCRIPTION VS. AUTONOMY
PRODUCT VS. PROCESS

1 My mentor teacher took one look at the standards when they came out,
said “What a load of crap,” and dismissed them. 2 She thinks the 1 STANDARDS
standards are often impossible to achieve and that you would have to be 2 “IMPOSSIBLE” VS.
a superteacher with superstudents to even come close to covering all the REALISTIC
material.

Combining coding with analytic memos

Analytical memos can be described as the researcher’s ongoing reflections during coding concerning the
codes, the phenomenon, the informants and their interrelations. Analytical memos help you think about
these elements, thus eventually bridging the distinctions between coding, analysis and results. Memos
are creatively developed little documents based on intuition, hunches and serendipitous occurrences
(Saldaña, 2015) related to the above-mentioned elements.
Displaying your data and codes
Visual display eases the reading and increases the understanding of scientific texts. A data display is
anything in which data can be illustrated more efficiently than in longer pieces of text. There are
multiple types of visual display (see Miles et al., 2013 for a comprehensive overview); here we
concentrate on just a few.
- Boxed displays
- Matrices
- Network displays

6. TYPES OF CODING

6.1. DEDUCTIVE CODING

Deductive coding means you start with a predefined set of codes, then assign those codes to the new
qualitative data. These codes might come from previous research, or you might already know what themes
you’re interested in analyzing. Deductive coding is also called concept-driven coding. For example, let’s
say you’re conducting a survey on customer experience. You want to understand the problems that arise
from long call wait times, so you choose to make “wait time” one of your codes before you start looking
at the data. The deductive approach can save time and help guarantee that your areas of interest are coded.
But you also need to be careful of bias; when you start with predefined codes, you have a bias as to what

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 the answers will be. Make sure you don’t miss other important themes by focusing too hard on proving
your own hypothesis.

6.2. INDUCTIVE CODING

Inductive coding, also called open coding, starts from scratch and creates codes based on the qualitative
data itself. You don’t have a set codebook; all codes arise directly from the responses. Here’s how
inducive coding works:

1. Break your qualitative dataset into smaller samples.

2. Read a sample of the data.
3. Create codes that will cover the sample.
4. Reread the sample and apply the codes.
5. Read a new sample of data, applying the codes you created for the first sample.
6. Note where codes don’t match or where you need additional codes.
7. Create new codes based on the second sample.
8. Go back and recode all responses again.
9. Repeat from step 5 until you’ve coded all of your data.

7. MANUAL OR AUTOMATED CODING

Coding can be done manually or with the support of Excel/ Word or with a software program such as
Nvivo. Below are some examples of coding like these:
Manual coding

Coding with Word/Excel

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Coding with NViVo

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ACTIVITIES
1. Work in groups. What are the advantages and disadvantages of
- inductive coding?
- deductive coding?

2. Work in groups. What are the advantages and disadvantages of

- manual coding?
- coding with Excel?
- coding with software programs such as Nvivo?

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3. Work in pairs. In the following interview transcript, a White female principal of an inner city
grades K–8 school with a predominantly Hispanic population, describes to the interviewer the
cultural conditions surrounding the site and the social services provided by the school to its
students and families. Code the following excerpt in the right-hand margin using Descriptive
Coding, In Vivo Coding, or Versus Coding, then write an analytic memo based on the codes:
TRANSCRIPT CODES TYPES OF CODES
We’re helping people with rent, helping them get jobs,
giving them emergency food, getting their power turned back
on when it’s been shut down, um, families that are in jail,
um, bringing in a police resource officer, dealing with all of
those agencies. We have someone in our social services
office from Helping House, we have community police in
that center,we have a migrant resource person in there. Yeah,
that’s not so much Hispanic culture as the culture of poverty,
and, you know, all of the children here are on free lunch and
free breakfast. And it is different. This year is the first time
that I have really seen a junior high teacher make the
assignment that all kids have to do research at the library and
see the kids take their parents to the main branch of the
public library on First Street and Main. It’s, the difference is
I think that the gangs are not as active as they have been.
They’re active in a different way, perhaps, but for a while
there the kids couldn’t step across Main Street without taking
the chance of being shot. And there’s all the, the territoriality
of the Hispanic gangs, plus the, the, uh, economic motives of
the gangs that moved in from Chicago and L.A. If you look
at this little area around the school, if you walk across Juarez
Street that’s campito, and that’s the campground where the
migrant workers used to live when they worked the crops
that were on this field where the school is. And then
(laughs), OK? And, the migrant workers coming up from
Mexico used to, uh, put stakes in the corners of the fields
that they were working and mark them as their territory. So
we have several generations of families here who are parts of
gangs that were territorial gangs in the sense of, this is where
we work, which have now been corrupted by the drugs and
the money coming in for the Crips and the Bloods. Um, and
the grandparents think it’s perfectly all right if a child joins a
gang and has his first communion in the same week, because
that gang was like being part of a labor union for them. So,
that’s a mix of the economic thing, the culture of poverty,
and the culture of the Mexican field worker.

Analytic memos:_________________________________________________...
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 MODULE 6.2: DOING THEMATIC ANALYSIS

A. THEMATIC ANALYSIS
In this part of Module 6, we will learn about how to do thematic analysis.
WHAT IS THEMATIC ANALYSIS?
Thematic analysis (TA) is a method for systematically identifying, organizing, and offering insight into
patterns of meaning (themes) across a data set. Through focusing on meaning across a data set, TA
allows the researcher to see and make sense of collective or shared meanings and experiences.
Identifying unique and idiosyncratic meanings and experiences found only within a single data item is
not the focus of TA. This method, then, is a way of identifying what is common to the way a topic is
talked or written about and of making sense of those commonalities.

WHY THEMATIC ANALYSIS?

The two main reasons to use TA are accessibility and flexibility. For people new to qualitative research,
TA provides an entry into a way of doing research that otherwise can seem vague, mystifying,
conceptually challenging, and overly complex. It offers a way into qualitative research that teaches the
mechanics of coding and analyzing qualitative data systematically, which can then be linked to broader
theoretical or conceptual issues.
WHAT STEPS ARE THERE IN THEMATIC ANALYSIS?
The following diagram summarises the steps of thematic analysis.

STEP 1: FAMILIARISATION OF DATA

Common to all forms of qualitative analysis, this phase involves immersing yourself in the data by
reading and rereading textual data (e.g., transcripts of interviews, responses to qualitative surveys) and
listening to audio recordings or watching video data. If you have audio data, we recommend listening to
them at least once as well as reading the transcript, especially if you did not collect the data or transcribe
them. Making notes on the data as you read—or listen—is part of this phase. Use whatever format
works for you (e.g., annotating transcripts, writing comments in a notebook or electronic file, underling
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portions of data) to highlight items potentially of interest. Note-making helps you start to read the data
as data.
Reading data as data means not simply absorbing the surface meaning of the words on the page, as you
might read a novel or magazine, but reading the words actively, analytically, and critically, and starting
to think about what the data mean. This involves asking questions like, How does this participant make
sense of their experiences? What assumptions do they make in interpreting their experience? What kind
of world is revealed through their accounts?
We will illustrate this with a brief example from Andreas’s interview:

Andreas: let’s say I’m in a in a seminar and somebody a a man says to me “oh look at her” (Int: mm) I’m not
going “oh actually I’m gay” (Int: mm [laughter]) I’ll just go like “oh yeah” (Int: mhm) you know I won’t fall into
the other one and say “oh yeah” (Int: yep) “she looks really brilliant”

Our initial observations included (a) Andreas reports a common experience of presumed heterosexuality, (b)
coming out is not an obvious option, (c) social norms dictate a certain response, (d) the presumption of
heterosexuality appears dilemmatic, and (e) he colludes in the presumption but minimally (to avoid social
awkwardness). Looking a bit more deeply, we speculated that (a) Andreas values honesty and being true to
yourself, but (b) he recognizes a sociopolitical context in which that is constrained, and (c) walks a tightrope
trying to balance his values and the expectations of the context. These initial observations suggest the data will
provide fertile grounds for analysis; reading Andreas’s answer as data reveals the richness that can be found in
even brief extracts of text. We did deliberately pick a particularly rich extract, however; not all extracts
will be as vivid as this one, and you may have little or nothing to say about some parts of your data

STEP 2: GENERATING INITIAL CODES

Phase 2 begins the systematic analysis of the data through coding. We’ve learnt how to code data in
Module 6.1.

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STEP 3: SEARCHING FOR THEMES
This phase involves reviewing the coded data to identify areas of similarity and overlap between codes:
Can you identify any broad topics or issues around which codes cluster? The basic process of generating
themes and subthemes, which are the subcomponents of a theme, involves collapsing or clustering codes
that seem to share some unifying feature together, so that they reflect and describe a coherent and
meaningful pattern in the data. In this case we examined the codes and some of them clearly fitted
together into a theme.

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STEP 4: REVIEWING THEMES

This phase involves a recursive process whereby the developing themes are reviewed in relation to the
coded data and entire data set. This phase is essentially about quality checking. Key questions to ask are
as follows:
■ Is this a theme (it could be just a code)?
■ If it is a theme, what is the quality of this theme (does it tell me something useful about the data set
and my research question)?
■ What are the boundaries of this theme (what does it include and exclude)?
■ Are there enough (meaningful) data to support this theme (is the theme thin or thick)?
■ Are the data too diverse and wide ranging (does the theme lack coherence)?

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STEP 5: DEFINING AND NAMING THEMES
When defining your themes, you need to be able to clearly state what is unique and specific about each
theme—whether you can sum up the essence of each theme in a few sentences is a good test of this. A
good thematic analysis will have themes that (a) do not try to do too much, as themes should ideally
have a singular focus; (b) are related but do not overlap, so they are not repetitive, although they may
build on previous themes; and (c) directly address your research question. In some cases, you may want
to have subthemes within a theme. These themes are useful in cases in which there are one or two
overarching patterns within the data in relation to your question, but each is played out in a number of
different ways.

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STEP 6: PRODUCING THE REPORT
The purpose of your report is to provide a compelling story about your data based on your analysis. The
story should be convincing and clear yet complex and embedded in a scholarly field. Even for
descriptive TA, it needs to go beyond description to make an argument that answers your research
question. Good writing comes with practice but try to avoid repetition, paraphrasing, unnecessary
complexity, and passive phrasing. In general, qualitative research is best reported using a first-person
active tense but check the requirements for your report.

B. THE ISSUE OF RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY IN QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

1. Checking for Researcher Effects (Miles and Huberman, 1994)

The dynamics of the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee will be influenced by the
personal characteristics of both parties. Differences in age, gender, education, background, and language
will all have an effect on the outcome of the interview.

Note: While belonging to the same cultural community helps to reduce researcher effects, since the
interviewer is seen as being less of an outsider, many of these other factors still play a very important
role and must therefore be recognized and taken into consideration when doing the analysis.

2. Validating/Confirming Findings
Triangulation: Findings are more dependable when they can be confirmed from several independent
sources. Their validity is enhanced when they are confirmed by more than one “instrument” measuring
the same thing. There are different types of triangulation:

◊ Triangulation from different sources: for example, interviewing different members of the community
who can give different perspectives on a specific question or topic. Personal journals are also an
example of this.

◊ Triangulation from different methods: looking at the same questions/ topics but trying to answer them
using different research methods, such as surveys, focus groups and individual interviews (often
blending qualitative and quantitative methods).

◊ Triangulation from different researchers: having two different researchers conduct the same
interview, for example, or analyze the same data is a good way to test validity.
3. Obtaining Feedback from Participants
The best way to examine the validity of the research findings and of the researcher’s interpretation of them
is for the researcher to go back and ask those individuals who participated in the study or who can
speak on behalf of them. “local informants can act as judges, evaluating the major findings of a study”
(Denzin, 1978).

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4. External Validation of Coding Strategies
Not only is it important to ensure validity in the research process and findings, but also in the data analysis
process. One way to do this is to compare how you (the researcher) have categorized and coded
the results into themes with how a colleague would have done it. Randomly select a few passages from
questions/topics that you have already coded and analyzed. Give the list of your codes/categories
to a colleague as well as all of the responses for that question/topic. Have them code the responses and
you can compare the coding with your own as a measure of validity and reliability of coding strategies.
Remember, however, to always protect the identity of your participant, even if you are working with a
trusted colleague.

ACTIVITIES

1. Work in groups. Find a piece of interview transcript and apply the steps of thematic analysis
into analyzing the data.

2. Work in groups. Use thematic analysis to analyse your qualitative data.

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