Dear Roshani,
I have used interviews and FGD's as instruments in soliciting for data in most of my research activities in the field of cultural anthropology. I have tried various forms of analyzing accrued data from the socio-cultural environment of various ethnic societies in Ghana. Interestingly, resorting to software for coding responses have been helpful in some cases but not always.
Personally, I am have seen that the Data Analysis Spiral by Creswell (2009) have proved immeasurable for analyzing my findings especially when I employ Case Study, narrative and descriptive techniques as research methods. Also, in many phenomenological studies that I have conducted, the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis have been helpful such as that of Pietkiewicz and Smith (2014) and Smith and Osborn (2008).
Other Qualitative Data Analysis procedures like that of Scott and Usher (2011) can assist you to analyze your findings.
All the best my sister.
Dickson Adom
Dear Roshani
Qualitative data analysis has a systematic and a creative component. I usually follow the method of interpretative thematic analysis that is briefly as follows:
1) Choose units of analysis (lines, paragraphs, etc.)
2) Guided by your research objectives select the relevant sections of text.
3) Inductively group these sections of relevant texts into categories. Try different arrangements.
As you can see until now the process is systematic, then step 4 would come:
4) Look for relationships between categories to identify Themes, that is, deep structures of relationship between categories.
This step 4 requires a lot of creativity.
Greetings and good luck with your research.
Jorge
@Dickson Adom,
Thank you so much for those articles. They were really helpful.
@ Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas,
Thank you for providing the step wise process. I think I will go with it.
The following sources may further help:
- Attride-stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 1, 3, pp. 385-405.
- Auerbach, C. F. and Silverstein, L. B. (2003). Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis, New York, New York University Press.
- Basit, T. N. (2003). Manual or electronic? The role of coding in qualitative data analysis. Educational Research, 45, 2, pp. 143-154.
- Miles, M. B. (1979). Qualitative Data as an Attractive Nuisance: The Problem of Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 4, pp. 590-601.
- Westbrook, L. (1994). Qualitative Research Methods: A Review of Major Stages, Data Analysis Techniques, and Quality Controls. Library and Information Science Research, 16, 3, pp. 241-254.
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_is_the_data_analyzed_in_qualitative_intensive_interviews
Dear Roshani
Following the method of @Jorge Cruz-Cardenas, there is a software called NVivo which is a great tool for qualitative data analysis. You can upload all the transcripts from your interviews, FGDs, articles, etc. and start coding based on the categories you decide. Might look a bit scary at the beginning, but after some practice you will find it pretty useful for your analysis.
The steps suggested by Jorge Cruz-Cardenas are very similar to those recommended by Braun & Clarke (2006) on Thematic Analysis. This is a very widely used technique, which is an obvious advantage because others will find it acceptable..
I have heard of Nvivo from a colleague and is highly recommended. I resonate with earlier contributors on this question. Thanks all the supporting literature is quite helpful.
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