Coding Qualitative Data

Coding

• Coding involves analyzing data and searching for essential information to answer research questions.
• Coding is also defined as the process of filtering data.
• Essential words are marked, labeled, or coded.
• Words are considered essential if they occur or have been mentioned several times by informants.

Types of Codes

• Preset codes are identified prior to analysis and utilize a deductive approach.
• Preset codes/themes are determined beforehand from related theories or existing knowledge.
• Emergent codes show up during analysis and utilize an inductive approach.
• With Emergent codes, the data determines the codes/themes.
• Qualitative researchers use codes to easily identify meanings and group similar patterns or themes in interview transcripts.

Collating

• Collating involves bringing together coded data.
• Giving the data an orderly appearance involves putting it in a graph (quantitative) or sentences (qualitative); like a table of responses.

Patterns and Themes

• Patterns and themes are words or phrases that collectively describe the experience or thoughts of every participant.
• These words and phrases become themes because they appear on several occasions and are mentioned by many participants.
• Qualitative researchers use codes (simply "labels") to identify themes.
• These codes help qualitative researchers identify similar experiences or thoughts.
• Codes that are grouped together are themes.
• Themes are words/phrases that manifest in the interview transcript and are used by researchers.
• Words/phrases that describe participants' experiences and thoughts should be coded accordingly for easy reference.

Steps for Analyzing Data

• Step 1: Prepare and organize the data, including transcripts, notes, documents, and sources.
• Step 2: Review and explore the data by reading and understanding the documents and notes.
• Step 3: Create initial codes while reading the data.
• Step 4: Review the codes and revise or combine them into themes.
• Identify recurring themes, language, opinions, and beliefs.
• Step 5: Present themes in a cohesive manner, considering the audience and the goals of the research.
• Findings should address each theme in turn and refer to the statement of the problem.

Techniques to Identify Themes

• Word Repetitions: Understand what people are talking about by looking at the words they use.
• Word repetitions include analyzing frequencies by generating a list of unique words in a text and counting occurrences.
• Indigenous Categories: Find themes by looking for local terms that sound unfamiliar or are used in unfamiliar ways.
• Key-Words-In-Context (KWIC): Base technique on observation by understanding a concept/how it is used.
• Researchers identify keywords and search the body of text to find all instances of those words.
• Compare and Contrast: Base approach on the idea that themes represent the ways in which texts are either similar or different using a "constant comparison method.”
• Social Science Queries: Refers to the interests in understanding how textual data illuminate questions of importance to social science.

Thematic Analysis

• A method for identifying and analyzing patterns and themes within qualitative data.
• Defined as a form of pattern recognition within the data.

Phases of Thematic Analysis

• Phase 1: Familiarization of the Data: Involves a deeper understanding of the data by reading it multiple times.
• Familiarization helps gain familiarity with the content.
• Phase 2: Coding: Involves generating concise labels or codes and coding the entire dataset.
• Ensure the codes are relevant to the topic and collate them.
• Phase 3: Searching for Themes: Generate themes from the codes and go through codes multiple times.
• Ensure relative codes are being collated.
• Phase 4: Reviewing the Themes: Review the generated themes to make sure themes are relevant to the topic.
• Themes must be compared to the dataset and topic.
• Phase 5: Defining & Naming the Themes: Conduct a detailed analysis of each theme.
• Each theme should have a "story" behind it for the results and discussion section.
• Phase 6: Writing Up: Knit together the analytic narrative explanation from each generated theme.
• Use data extracts and contextualize the analysis in relation to existing literature.

Discussion of Research Findings

• Discussion is the heart of a research paper.
• Discussion section is written to explain findings.
• Explain what was done to answer the research questions and why it was done that way.
• It explains the results of the study and connects the results to each.

Sample Coding and Thematic Analysis

• The uses of social media are grouped into 4 themes:
  • Social media as a means of communication
  • Social media as entertainment
  • Social media for educational purposes
  • Social media for social updates and trends