Field Notes are a data type, so you can analyse it with any Method suited to that kind of data and your research question ... just as you can analyse Interviews with different methods (hermeneutics, grounded theory etc.). It depends on your focus, but you can analyse interviews and observation protocolls/field notes using the grounded theory method (e.g. in the version of Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin).

As further reading on your question I would recommend:

Emerson/Fretz/Shaw (2011): Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes.

but maybe this specialized chapters help too:

Corwin/Clemens (2011): Analysing Fieldnotes. In: Delamont, Sara (Ed.): Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education.

DeWalt/DeWalt (2011): Analysing Fieldnotes. In: DeWalt/DeWalt: Participant Observation.

and more general helpful ressources:

Atkinson et al. (2007): Handbook of Ethnography.

Miles/Huberman/Saladana (2014): Qualitative Data Analysis.

Fieldnotes are usually analyzed as part of the ongoing data collection. In particular, they are most useful when they generate a series of memos that help with gathering and interpreting further observations.

I find that coding helps a great deal with getting a snapshot big picture, as well as finding key ideas later on.

thank you all

Mayukh; I would also look for the most basic things- such as recurrent event/activities/themes. I would also load your notes into a qualitative analysis program, as these are word-search and compare/contrast oriented algorithms that are great for find similarities and uniquenesses in behavior and dialog. I had a lot of such data to process for my PhD dissertation, and the programs I used helped save a great deal of time. Good Luck!

I am also facing the same problem. On one hand i interviewed informants, from their interviews key themes were identified and analyzed, on the other hand similar key themes and ideas were observed in participant observation in the field with other key informants and participants. These interviews and the ideas from fieldnotes together led to one idea which further i analyzed and wrote a paper. Now one of the reviewer said that your headings from the field observation are not analytical. I do not understand what it mean? PLEASE CAN YOU GUIDE ME? THANKS David L Morgan Paul Eisewicht

Well, all this means, from what I remember, is that you need to categorize your field observation findings into their various sets based on some appropriate THEORETICAL MODEL. For my study, one of my main criteria was whether the particular interview respondent was an Administrator (those defining the policy), or an Educator (those who had to 'live with' the policy as it was being defined by the Administrators). I was using Sense-Making theory, but I also had a Conflict theoretical element built in, because of this inherent structural difference in power. Another criterion was the length of my respondent's careers, because some long-term teachers were actually also administrators, or of nearly the same level of power. Few of those with less than three years experience- including some of the Administrators- had much understanding about the need to make sense of the policy that I was trying to study. One criterion that I had originally believed would have a major influence- the basic level of resources available to the school to interpret and implement the policy-- turned out to be of little significance, once I parsed out my categories of responses (Wealthier, Middle-Class, and Poorer schools). Basically, show how your field designations are TIED TO your theoretical framework(s). Good Luck!

Thomas E. Lehman can you please tell me what literature reference you cited for this ? please tell me, thanks. waiting for response.

By grouing or coding the different fields being researched say if you are dealing with age groups or gender

I was wondering if you can analyze the Instagram data as a form of field notes in ethnographic observations through thematic analysis.

An example for analyzing codes in filed notes please?

I used a software called (sorry for it's funny name!) NUDIST. It is a set of pattern-search algorithms, and it has a degree of vocabulary built into it, sort of a primitive AI, that looks for similar words or expressions, when you input Qualitative data. For example, if it finds the English expression 'sort of', it will attribute this as similar to other English expressions, 'kind of', and 'almost like'. It will attribute 'Yes', to "I agree', and 'Definitely'. NUDIST has probably been through several updates since I used in, back in 2007.

NUDIST was the predecessor or NVivo, which is now one of the most popular programs for qualitative analysis. They have in the mean time expanded their options for pattern-based searches.

BTW NUDIST was supposed an abbreviation for Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing, Searching and Theorizing.