Analysing Qualitative Data

Table of Contents

1. Analysing Qualitative Data
2. Data Management
3. Data management
4. Data management
5. Data management
6. Identifying initial themes
7. Data coding
8. Answer
9. Identifying initial concepts
10. Developing descriptions of the data
11. Developing descriptions of the data
12. Building your conclusions
13. In summary

Data management

There are a number of decisions you make which will influence the way you analyse. If you have decided to use a computer package such as Nudist or Atlasti, you will need to convert all your data into files which are compatible with the package.

Data reduction - remember that as soon as you begin to turn your raw data into something more manageable to work on your will be losing some details. For example, if you make notes of recording from interviews you will be choosing to leave out information which you decide is not relevant.

A really important aspect of qualitative analysis is that it can be done in many different ways and still be 'right'. BUT this still means that

-analysis must be done very thoughtfully and

- being clear about what you are choosing to disregard or lose as you progress along the path to your conclusions.

For evaluation projects always bear in mind that you are looking for data that are relevant to the evaluation questions and well focussed on these.

1

Which of the following potentially important details do you lose when you work with notes from a recorded interview? a) Peoples facial expressions and body language b) Long pauses, sighs, sobs and other expressions which might indicate difficultly around a topic or doubt about what a person is saying c) A mention of something which might be not very important at the time but as you work with other interviews you realise that it seems to be important to many patients. All of the above