I am collecting data from 3 data techniques: interview, diary and student compositions.
Should I collect "the codes taken from interview and diary" in one page and continue to produce themes? Then compare the results with the data analysis from composition?
Or Should I produce codes and themes first from diary, then from interview? I am confuesd a little bit. Thank you.
Hello,
Your question is about data triangulation. In other words, you have multiple data sources for a single project. You suggest that you would handle each source in its own silo. It thus seems to me that you would like to isolate them from each other. However, the idea of triangulation is to light the research problem from several directions. The order of processing the sources can be relevant, but it depends on your data and the research task.
My suggestion is that you try to organize your note taking and codes in a way, that allows you filter them according to several criteria, one of which is the data souce. Your notes and codes are technically put together but can be selected, grouped and separated from each other acording to several criteria, when it is practical. Your tutor and technical support personnel can introduce you how to do this with software tools like NVivo. You can do it even with general tools like Excel or Word.
Regards,
The previous respondent provided a good answer. Much depends on the questions embedded in each technique and whether you are doing inductive or deductive coding. That said, establishing criteria that will help you filter data is key so that you can aggregate and disaggregate the data by source is key. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
The goal of triangulation is to increase the credibility and trustworthiness of your analysis process by showing that different sources point to the same conclusion. Note this goes beyond basic coding in the sense of labelling your data, and points to the broader issue of whether the separate sources each point to the same conclusions.
Should I reach a conclusion in each data source (interview and diary) by coding? I'll analyze interview texts and reach a lot of codes. Also I'll analyze diaries and reach a lot of codes. My real questions is this: Should I put codes drawn from two different sources in one page and try to reach some themes? Then compare the results with student essays (third source) assessments?
According to what Juha Kamarainen suggests, I should analyze both interviews and diaries... and put codes from both sources in one page. Then try to produce themes and patterns. However, what David Morgan gives an important idea that I should also show that both sources point to the same conclusion.
I would starting by producing themes (not just codes) from your most detailed source, and then translate those themes into a codebook that you can apply to the second data source. That process may well lead to updates in your themes, and thus your codebook, before you work with you third data source.
Mr. Morgan,
So I should analyze primary source data (interview) first and produce codes and themes. Then, I'll have a codebook. When I analyze the second souce data (diary), your suggestion is to use the codebook and revise it according to what ı have found in the second source data. Correct? Please advise. Is there a reference for the technique you advised? (I have read a lot and couldnt see techniques for analyizing different sources in one reseach...) thank you.
A lot depends on your goals. If you are pursuing triangulation, you should work with the data sets in ways that let you compare them -- which is what I described earlier. Alternatively, if you are doing thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006), you should code all the data before you generate themes.
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