Qualitative methodology is a common approach in educational research that examines research questions that are exploring an idea, seeking to understand experiences or culture are suggestive of a qualitative design. They are often "what" and "how" questions. The analysis of qualitative data is dependent on how the study was set up. This requires you to consider the conceptual and methodological frameworks in devising a schemas for analysis--often a coding schema. Good frameworks are built by good research questions. Because all of these elements are foundational in determining the way the data are analyzed, I review each of them below with a focus on how they shape analysis. I encourage you to read each of the steps below in order to help you build a strong project that can produce meaningful data. 

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If you have already read through all the information and are looking for something specific, you can click on a specific step below to take you directly to that section. 

 

• Step 1: Good Research questions

• Step 2: Conceptual Framework 

• Step 3: Methodological Framework

  • Phenomenology

  • Grounded Theory

  • Case Study

  • Participant Action Research

• Table 1. Research Questions, Designs, and Examples

• Step 4: Collecting Qualitative Data

  • Sources

  • Number of Participants/Artifacts

  • Extracting Data- Interview Questions

• Step 5: Analysis 

• Step 6: Writing It Up

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Step 1: Good Research Questions

The research question is critical. It guides everything else from your conceptual framework, to questions, to analysis.  I am putting this as step one, but it will be something you come back to and revise in tandem with the development of your conceptual framework and methodological framework. Below are two videos to help you develop good research questions. Watch them both. The investment in time on your research questions is worth it as they guide so much of the project 

• Video 1: Qualitative Research Questions-Part 1 

• Video 2: Qualitative Research Questions-Part 2

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Step 2: Conceptual Framework

If you have research questions that require a qualitative design, the first thing to consider is your conceptual framework. A conceptual framework refers to the way in which you are proceeding with understanding the topic you are studying. When we examine a concept, let's say adjunct faculty attitudes towards grade inflation, you need to be very clear on what you mean by these concepts and your preconceived biases.  For example, are you looking at their attitudes with respect to whether they believe grade inflation is a problem? Or, are you interested in how they see grade inflation 

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Are you thinking about grade inflation from a systematic perspective and wondering if adjuncts feel pressure to inflate grades in order to retain students at the college. Why do you think that? Is it because of your own experiences as a member of the adjunct community? 

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Perhaps your conceptualization of grade inflation is completely different. Maybe you are thinking about it on the individual level and interested in whether adjuncts feel that they need to inflate grades in order to keep students happy and thereby securing that they will be hired to teach the course again.  Why do you think this? Is it because of stories you have heard from others about adjuncts being regularly replaced if students are unhappy with them? 

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These are two different ways to conceptually frame the idea of grade inflation.  And, we haven't even started on what is meant by "attitudes" the other variables under investigation.  The most important thing to recognize here is that they way you conceptualize grade inflation will dictate the way you collect data about. If you are conducting interviews with adjuncts, you need to know if your questions should be about the way in which they interpret policies and communications from the institution such that they may influence them to inflate grades OR if you should be questioning them about ways in which the decision is made about whether an adjunct returns to teach a course and if student grades influence that. No, don't ask them both.  That's like giving a full packet of surveys because you are indecisive about what you really want to know.  Make a choice, frame it out, and then proceed. 

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So, step one is to create a conceptual framework.  

Here is a video to review to help you with that. And here is an example of an outline of a conceptual framework. 

You will write about your conceptual framework in your dissertation. Ask your advisor what chapter they prefer you to place it in the dissertation. 

 

Step 3: Methodological Framework

Now that you are clear on the concepts you are researching, you need to identify the methodological framework. I review common frameworks below. When determining the specifics of your methodology, such as interview questions or artifacts, think about your methodological framework and ensure they are in line with your framework.

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Methodological Framework: Phenomenology

"...the philosophical assumptions [of phenomenological research] rest on studying people’s experiences as they are lived every day, viewing these experiences as conscious (van Manen, 1990), and arriving at a description of the essence of these experiences, not explanations or analyses (Moustakas, 1994).​" (Cresswell, et al., 2007, p.253)

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In this approach many researchers are trying to capture the "essence" of experience. How do you do this? You take narrative (transcripts, recordings) and you analyze the individual statements documenting the textures and structures. 

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Textures:  what the individual experienced

Structures: how they experienced it

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It takes time, but eventually a picture starts to form across participants (or groups of participants) that describes their experience. In your analysis you are looking for the common experiences. You are not trying to develop a theory as to why they happen but what is happening.

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Methodological Framework: Grounded Theory

This is where we are trying to discover the why.  Why do things happen the way they do? We are creating a theory to explain this. This is perhaps one of the most common types of qualitative research, which means there are lots of great resources about it out there.  Along with that will be varying perspectives and interchangeable terminology.  I will outline some of these ideas here to both get your familiar with the jargon and briefly explain the process. 

 

A common grounded theory approach is called the constant-comparative approach.  This reflects the way in which the data you collect is constantly being compared to the categories and themes you derived from earlier data.  You start with your raw "data" (the transcriptions) and read each line.  

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1. First, you do open coding where you code the lines of data without any preconceived ideas.

2. Second, you start axial coding by relating the categories you developed in the open coding stage into themes.

3. Third, you conduct selective coding.  This requires you to define the rules of how the categories interact; this is where you are defining the theory. 

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To ensure that you have captured all necessary themes, you examine new data and ensure that the text can all fall into the existing themes. This is called "saturation". If you discover deviant cases, you can point to them as helping to define the rules of the theory. This process is called "deviant case analysis".

 

 Methodological Framework: Case Study

The case study is about understanding an issue/event/object with specific emphasis on the contextual conditions. A case means just that, a specific case. Columbine is a case; 9/11 is a case; COVID-19 is a case; Betsy DeVos is a case. If you have one school that you are recruiting subjects from you may or may not being doing a case study. Are you picking this school for a specific contextual reason that. is going to address the research questions (ex: How do administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School address school threats today?) or is it out of convenience (I work at The Best Elementary School and will survey administrators there to understand how they respond to threats).  In the first example, this is a special case. In the second, yes it is a single school, but it is not a "case".

 

In a case study, you may use people to get this information but often the emphasis is not on the individual. You should use multiple sources to help triangulation--multiple types of sources--to gather information.  Perhaps this includes interviews with principals, a focus group with parents of children attending their schools, and newspaper stories. Here are some typical sources of qualitative data:

• documents

• archival records

• interviews

• direct observation

• participant observation

• physical artifacts

 

Methodological Framework: Participant Action Research

This approach is aimed at enacting social change. It's key outcome is a plan to action. It addresses the ways in which knowledge, skills, and experiences are created in an organization/system with an eye towards reducing obstacles and unjust practices/structures. It includes input from several sources and a researcher who his engaged with the community that is being studied. Participants may even assist in the data analysis.  It will summarize experiences, seek out thematic reasons for change, and end with a call to change. 

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Step 4: Collecting Qualitative Data

 

There is much to consider with data collection including the source, number of participants/artifacts, and how to extract the data. I review each below. 

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Sources

Common sources of data are people, archived data sources, artifacts. Sometimes people use multiple sources. When deciding what is best for you, think about where you can access information that can answer your research question. People is often an option, but what about other sources? Can they richen your understanding of the topic? For example, if you are investigating the roll of an activist group in changing a particular educational policy, you may be want to interview some of the members of the group. You could also look at meeting minutes from their meetings. Further, you could review their website, blog, Facebook ground, or even photos on Instagram.  There is a lot of data out there that could lead to valuable insights. 

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Number of People/Artifacts

Qualitative research typically utilizes a smaller sample than quantitative research. In quantitative research we have statistical tools like power analyses that can guide the desired sample size. In qualitative research, there are other methods.  The most common method that I see in use is that of stopping data collection when saturation has been met.  Saturation occurs when new data sources (e.g., people or artifacts) no longer add new understanding to the issue. For example, if you have interviewed 15 teachers and they are revealing three key barriers to successful integration at at new school, and then the 16th interview reveals no new insights of different barriers or other unique contributions to your understanding, you have reached saturation. 

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Extracting Data

Now that you have a source and you have a sense of how many people/artifacts you need, how do you get the data? Common methods with people are interviews or focus groups. In that case you need to develop an interview protocol. This is not a fast process. There is background to this process that you need to understand and apply in the creation of your questions. Review this video and this guide to help you with this process. Remember your methodological framework when creating questions! Are you asking questions that answer "why" things happen, that describe their experience, or suggest specific social changes that are needed? These are three different frameworks. Be consistent with the one that is right for your study. 

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Step 5: Analysis

Interviews, artifacts, and archived data produced written documents.  It is from these words that you will discover the answers to your research questions. The process by which this is done is considered the analysis. The most common type of analysis I see students using is a thematic analysis that relies on coding. Coding starts by reviewing your conceptual framework and developing a coding schema from it.  There is much I can write on this, but the following videos will do a much more concise (and entertaining) job. 

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• Coding Video 1- Why do we code

• Coding Video 2- What is a code

• Coding Video 3- The Cycles of Coding

• Coding Video 4- How do you know you are coding correctly

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Here is a segment of coding transcript. Recall the conceptual framework example that I have linked above. The first concept that was defined was preparedness for the dissertation process with three choices: very prepared, unprepared, somewhat prepared. Here is an example of how you can review the transcripts for codes related to this concept and tally it in a table formate.  Several more examples of these tables are available here. 

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Step 6: Writing It Up

 

Your methodology is written up in Chapter 3. This will include a discussion on how you recruited participants or identified artifacts. You will discuss the frameworks that guided your selection of interview questions and coding schema.  You will discuss your own biases and how they may influence the way in which you interpret the results.  This is a particularly important section as the researcher is seen as the "instrument" in qualitative research.  Typically, when we refer to research instruments we are thinking about a test or survey.  These types of instruments go through a systematic process to be developed to ensure that they are reliable and valid--in other words, to make sure they are objective.  We allow the scales (e.g., strongly disagree to strongly agree) tell us what the participants think and feel.  In qualitative research, there is no objective instrument. Instead, you as the researcher have to interpret if a participant's statement indicates that they strongly agree with something. They may not come out and say "I strongly agree that teachers should be evaluated with standardized tests scores." Instead they may say " I see a lot of value in this approach, and I feel like we should be using this at every chance we have." You have to take this statement and interpret that it is indicating agreement. This is just a simple example of how the interpretation is done by the researcher, and you will likely find the process is more involved in your research. In order for the reader to feel confident that you are interpreting the participants' responses with an open mind and free from your bias, you need to make sure that they understand what your biases are.  And, writing this section helps you identify those biases as well.  

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Your analysis is written up and reported in Chapter 4. The way in which qualitative analysis is reported can take many forms.  One common approach that I see is to separate the chapter by research questions and/or themes that are derived from the data. For example, after an introduction and restatement of the research questions, each question could become a header under which you report results that relate specifically to that question.  That section could start with a brief summary of the key findings and then have subheadings to discuss each finding in more details. If you are developing themes from the data, the subheadings could be made from each theme. Narratively describe what was found for each theme and provide quotations from participants that support your summary.

 

I recommend the following resources to help guide your analysis and writing of Chapter Four:

• Analyzing Qualitative Data 

• Using verbatim quotation in reporting qualitative social research: researchers’ views: https://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/pdf/verbquotresearch.pdf

• An excellent guide on how to choose GOOD quotes to use in Chapter Four. 

• Example Chapter Four for the Qualitative Dissertation

• Students are strongly encouraged to review Bloomberg & Volpe’s Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation for guidance on all parts of the qualitative dissertation including data analysis. 

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Chapter 4 is not where you explain the implications of the findings, or how they tie in with the literature, limitations, or recommendations. Those topics are reported in Chapter 5.  

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Getting started can be one the most difficult parts of the analysis. Here are two activities from monash.edu that can help get you started. 

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This article provides a review of what should be included in a qualitative research report.  Of particular interest is this table that lists the key elements with descriptions of each. You can use this table to guide you along the way and as a checklist at the end of your writing. 

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Bloomberg and Volpe's Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation provides guidance on writing up a qualitative dissertation analysis and discussion. Here is an example Chapter 4 (analysis summary), and this is a document of their key take aways about writing the discussion (Chapter 5). You can also find helpful documents on their website.  

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As you write your analysis up, please feel fee to book time to talk with me about how you will organize the chapter, or questions you may have. You can also email drafts to me (even if it's just small pieces). I am happy to provide you with feedback. 

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