Qualitative Data
Analysis: An introduction
Carol Grbich
Chapter 2 :
Design Methodologies, Data
Management and Analytical
Approaches
Design Methodologies
Realist/Critical
 Grounded theory (Strauss)
 Classical and critical ethnography
 Classical phenomenology
 Feminist research
 Summative evaluation
 Action research
Design methodologies
Interpretivist/constructivist
 Grounded theory (Glaser)
 Hermeneutic approaches
 Heuristic phenomenology
 Memory work
 Formative evaluation
 Participatory action
Design methodologies
Postmodern / post structural
 Grounded theory
 Ethnodrama/auto/cyber ethnography
 Phenomenology
 Feminist
 Evaluation
 Action research
Interview transcript
Couteau: My first question concerns the actual process
of writing. Do you have any sort of daily ritual that
serves as a preparation to writing, or do you just sit
down every day at a certain time and begin?
Bradbury: Well, the ritual is waking up, number one,
and then lying in bed and listening to my voices. Then,
over a period of years ... I call it my morning theater;
it’s inside my head. And my characters talk to one
another, and when it reaches a certain pitch of
excitement I jump out of bed and run and trap them
before they are gone. So I never have to worry about a
routine; they’re always in there talking.
Couteau: How long do you write for?
Bradbury: Oh, a couple of hours. You can do three or
four thousand words and that’s more than enough for
one day.
Preliminary data analysis
Purpose:
 While data is being collected:
 Checking and tracking data
 Identifying holes
 Determining if question/s or sampling strategies
need to change
 To identify what is emerging from the data
Preliminary data analysis
Couteau: My first question concerns the actual
process of writing. Do you have any sort of
daily ritual that serves as a preparation to
writing, or do you just sit down every day at a
certain time and begin?
Bradbury:
Well, the ritual is waking up,
number one, and then lying in bed and
listening to my voices. Then, over a period of
years ... I call it my morning theater; inside
my head. And my characters talk to one
another, and when it reaches a certain pitch
of excitement I jump out of bed and run and
trap them before they are gone. So I never
have to worry about routine; they’re always
in there talking.
Morning theater’: how long
does this process take?
What does he do if he
forgets what they have said
or is distracted before he
can complete writing down
what they have said?
Face sheets
Purpose - to help manage data by:
 Identifying major issues emerging from each set
of data collected
 Locating issues and questions to be followed up
in the next interview/s
 Facilitate ongoing data summaries
Qualitative traditions of analytic
approaches
 Iterative (hermeneutic via feedback cycles)
 Subjective (dual or total focus on the researcher)
 Investigative (semiotic exploring language and
cultural contexts)
 Enumerative (counting and ‘objective’ accounts)
Process:
Iterative
a series of actions of data collection which are repeated until the accumulated
findings indicate that nothing new is likely to emerge and that the research
question has been answered.
Iterative approaches include:
 the basic Hermeneutic Approach
 Grounded Theory,
 Phenomenology, Ethnography,
 Oral history,
 Action,
 Evaluation,
 Socio-cultural Narratives,
 Feminist versions of all of the above and Memory Work
Subjective
Process:
is a focus on you the researcher’s mental processes,
experiences and judgements
Subjective approaches include;
 auto ethnography,
 heuristic phenomenology
 postmodern versions of ethnography, grounded theory,
feminist, evaluation and action research where the
researcher has chosen to include a significant segment of
subjective data.
Investigative
Process:
the uncovering of previously hidden information relating to
languages within their cultural contexts
Investigative approaches include;
 Structuralist,
 Post Structuralist,
 Content Analysis,
 Feminist research,
 Discourse Analysis,,
 Conversational Analysis
 Narratives of the Socio-linguistic type.
Enumerative
Process:
1. The production of ‘objective’ accounts of the content of
verbal, written, or visual texts,
2. the development of codes and categories often prior to
analysis,
3. and the definition and measurement of units of analysis.
Approaches include:

transcendental realism,
 quasi statistical and
 matrix analysis