Qualitative Research Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5** **QUALITATIVE RESEARCH** Learning Objectives: At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to: 1\. Define Research Methodology, 2\. Define Methods of Research; 3\. Define Qualitative Research; 4\. ldentify and appreciate the practical application of Qualitative Research...

**CHAPTER 5** **QUALITATIVE RESEARCH** Learning Objectives: At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to: 1\. Define Research Methodology, 2\. Define Methods of Research; 3\. Define Qualitative Research; 4\. ldentify and appreciate the practical application of Qualitative Research, 5\. ldentify and explain the different Qualitative Research Approach; 6\. Explain the Sampling Techniques used in Qualitative Research; 7\. Enumerate and explain the different Data Collection Techniques in Qualitative Research; 8\. Explain the different Qualitative Data Analysis; and **9.** Enumerate the processes of Content and Thematic Analysis. **Difference between Methods of Research and Research Methodology** **Research methodology** is a way of explaining how a researcher intends to carry out their research. It\'s a logical, systematic plan to resolve a research problem. A methodology details a researcher\'s approach to the research to ensure reliable, valid results that address their aims and objectives. It encompasses what data they\'re going to collect and where from, as well as how it\'s being collected and analyzed (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022). A **method** refers to the technical steps taken to do research. Descriptions of methods usually include defining and stating why the researcher has chosen specific techniques to investigate a research problem, followed by an outline of the procedures he/ she used to systematically select, gather, and process the data. The methodology refers to a discussion of the underlying reasoning why particular methods were used. This discussion includes describing the theoretical concepts that inform the choice of methods to be applied, placing the choice of methods within the more general nature of academic work, and reviewing its relevance to examining the research problem. The methodology section also includes a thorough review of the methods other scholars have used to study the topic (Schneider, 2014). There are two primary categories of methods of research; Qualitative and Qualitative. Recent researches employ the combination of both methods, in order to increase the validity of the research; this is called Mixed Research. **What is Qualitative Research?** Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non- numerical data like text, video, 0r audio; to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences (Bhandari, 2020). It is designed to explore the human elements of a given topic, where specific methods are used to examine how individuals see and experience the world (Given, 2008). It is a form of social inquiry that tends to adapt a flexible and data driven research design, to use relatively unstructured data, to emphasize the role of subjectivity in the research process, to study a small number of naturally occurring cases in detail, and to use verbal rather than statistical forms of analysis (Hammersley, 2013). Qualitative studies seek to embrace and understand the contextual influences on the research issues, which involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world(Hennick, Hutter, and Bailey, 2020). Its objective is to answer questions about the \'what\', \'how\', and \'why\' of phenomena. This is in contrast to the questions of \'how many or how much that are sought to be answered by quantitative research, including epidemiologic studies and clinical trials. A common distinguishing feature of qualitative research is that studies often aim to explore and understand, rather than measure phenomena and behaviors (Berk, Otmar, Dean, Berk, and Michalak, 2015). According to the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA), qualitative research is designed to reveal a target audience\'s range of behavior and the perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues. It uses in-depth studies of small groups of people to guide and support the construction of hypotheses. The results of qualitative research are descriptive rather than predictive (QRCA, 2022). **When to Use Qualitative Research?** **Qualitative methods** are typically used for providing an in-depth understanding of the research issues that embrace the perspectives of the study population and the context in which they live. (Hennick, Hutter, and Bailey, 2020). It is most suitable for addressing the \"why\" questions to explain and understand issues or \"how\" questions that describe the processes or behaviors (Hammersley, 2013).. It is also suitable in examining sensitive topics, as the rapport building provides a comfortable atmosphere for participant\'s disclosure (Hennick, Hutter, and Bailey, 2020). Moreover, this method is useful for exploring new topics and explaining complex issues such as people\'s beliefs and behavior; and for identifying the social or cultural norms of a group or Society (Given, 2008). The following are the list of practical application or qualitative Research (Hennick, Hutter, and Bailey, 2020):  Understanding behaviors, belief, opinions and emotions from the perspective of study participants themselves;  Understanding and explaining the people\'s views and behavior;  Understanding the processes; such as how people make decisions, or negotiate a job, or manage a business;  lnterpreting the findings of quantitative research;  Uncovering the meaning the people give to their experiences;  Understanding social interactions among people and the norms and values shared by them; Identifying the social, cultural, economic or physical context in which activities take place;  Giving voice to the issues of a certain study population; and  Examining in detail sensitive issues such as sexuality, violence, and personal relationships. **Qualitative Research Approach** The objective of qualitative research is to understand how people experience the world. While there are many approaches to qualitative research, they tend to be flexible and focus on retaining rich meaning when interpreting data (Bhandari, 2020). The following are the common approaches in qualitative research: 1\. **Basic Interpretive Qualitative Study** It is the basic interpretive and descriptive study which exemplifies all the characteristics of qualitative research. The researcher is interested in understanding how participantsmake meaning of a situation or phenomenon, this meaning is mediated through the researcher as instrument\", the strategy is inductive\", and the outcome is descriptive. It seeks to discover and understand a phenomenon, a process, the perspective and worldviews of the people involved, or a combination of these. Data are collected through interviews, observations, or document analysis. These data are inductively analyzed to identify the recurring patterns or common themes that cut across the data. Then a descriptive account of findings is presented and discussed, using the references to the literature that framed the study in the first place (Merriam, 2009). 2\. **Phenomenological Research** Phenomenological Research attempts to understand problems, ideas, and situations from the perspective of common understanding and experience rather than differences (Thurston, Coupal, Jones, Crowshoe, etal, 2014). It investigates a phenomenon or event by describing and interpreting participants\' lived experiences (Bhandari, 2020). Phenomenology is about understanding how human beings experience their world. It gives researchers a powerful tool with which to understand subjective experience. It helps researchers to explore those experiences, thoughts, and feelings and helps to elicit the meaning underlying how people behave (Austin and Sutton, 2014). Phenomenologists are interested in showing how complex meanings are built out of simple units of direct experience; they employ a form of inquiry with inner experiences unproved in everyday life. This type of research is based on the assumption that there is an essence/s to shared experiences. The experiences of different people or participants are bracketed, analyzed, and compared to identify the essences of the phenomenon (Merriam, 2009). For example, the essence of participating in a rehabilitation program, the essence of being a delinquent, etc. The following are the methods of data collection on a phenomenological research (Harappa Learning, 2021):  The researcher can observe the subject or access written records, such as texts, journals, poetry, music or diaries;  They can conduct conversations and interviews with open-ended questions, which allow researchers to make subjects comfortable enough to open up; and  Action research and focus workshops are great ways to put at ease candidates who have psychological barriers. 3\. **Grounded Theory Methodology** Grounded Theory Methodology is an inductive, systematic guidelines for gathering, synthesizing, analyzing, and conceptualizing qualitative data for the purpose of theory Construction (Charmaz, 2001). It is a research method that will enable a researcher to develop a theory which offers an explanation about the main concern of the population of your substantive area and how that concern is resolved or comparative methodology that provides processed (Scott, 2009). It was originally introduced by sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss on their book The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (1967). This seminal work explained how theory could be generated from data inductively. This process challenged the traditional method of testing or refining theory through deductive testing.This methodology is appropriate when little is known about a phenomenon; the aim being to produce or construct an explanatory theory that uncovers a process inherent to the substantive area of inquiry. One of the defining characteristics of Grounded Theory is that it aims to generate theory that is grounded in the data (Chun Tie, Birks, and Francis, 2019). The researcher begins with a broad query in a particular topic area and then collects relevant information about the topic. As the action processes of data collection continue, each piece of information is reviewed, compared, and contrasted with other information. From this constant comparison process, commonalities and dissimilarities among categories of information become clear, and ultimately a theory that explains observations is inductively developed. Thus, queries that will be answered through grounded theory do not relate to specific domains but rather to the structure of how the researcher wants to organize the findings. Grounded theory can also be used to modify existing theory or to expand on or uncover differences from what is already known (DePoy, and Gitlin, 2016). 4\. **Ethnography** Ethnography or Ethnographic study, is a form of qualitative research that has a long tradition in the field of anthropology. It was developed specifically to study human society and culture (Merriam, 2009). It is a descriptive study of a particular human society, it is básed almost entirely on fieldwork and requires the complete immersion of the researcher in the culture and everyday life of the people who are the subject of his study (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020). It is a qualitative method for collecting data often used in the social and behavioral sciences. Data are collected through observations and interviews, which are then used to draw conclusions about how societies and individuals Ethnographers observe life as it happens instead of trying to manipulate it in a lab. Interviews and observations are common methods for data collection in an ethnographic study. As an ethnographer becomes integrated in a community, he or she will talk to many people in order to become familiar with their way of life and to refine the function. research ideas (University of Virginia, n.d.). The central aim of ethnography is to provide rich, holistic insights into peoples\' world views and actions, as well as the nature of the location they inhabit (Hughes, 1992). As Hammersley (1985) claims that the task of ethnographers is to document the culture, the perspectives and practices of the people in these settings. The aim is to \'get inside\' the way each group of people sees the world. 5\. **Biographical Research** Biographical Research or Life-history Methodology is an assembly of procedures for generating and interpreting the stories or narratives of individual lives. It is a generic term for a variety of approaches to qualitative study that focuses on the generation, analysis, and presentation of data of a life history,\" life story, personal experience narrative, autobiography, and biography. It assumes that a social action can best be understood from the account and perspective of the people involved, and thus the focus is on an individual subjective definition and experience of life (Schwandt, 2014).6. **Case Study Research** The case study is an intensive description and analysis phenomenon or social unit such as individual, group, institutions or community. By concentrating upon a single phenomenon or case, this approach seeks to describe the phenomenon in depth (Merriam, 2009). It investigates Contemporary phenomenon (the case) in depth and within its real-world context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident. In other words, the researcher wants to do a case study because he/she wants to understand a real-world case and assume that such an understanding is likely to involve contextual conditions pertinent to his/ her case (Yin, 2017). The main stages of research activity when planning and undertaking a case study; the crucial stages are (Crowe. Cresswell, Robertson, et al., 2011): a\. Defining the case- Carefully formulated research question/s, informed by the existing literature and a prior appreciation of the theoretical issues and setting/s, are all important in appropriately and succinctly defining the case. More importantly, each case should have a pre-defined boundary which clarifies the nature and time period covered by the case study (i.e. its scope, beginning and end), the relevant social group, organization or geographical area of interest to the investigator, the types of evidence to be collected, and the priorities for data collection and analysis (Crowe, a. Cresswell, Robertson, et al., 2011). b\. Selecting the case/s- The decision on how to select the case(s) to study is a very important one that merits some reflection. The case may be selected on its own merits, where in the case is selected not because it is representative of other cases, but because of its uniqueness, which is of genuine interest to the researchers. Or it may be selected because it is a typical or a case that can work well (Crowe, Cresswell, Robertson, et al., 2011). c\. Collecting and analyzing the data- In order to develop a thorough understanding of the case, the case study approach usually involves the collection of multiple sources of evidence (Crowe, Cresswell, Robertson, et al., 2011). d\. Interpreting data- Making sense and offering a coherent interpretation of the typically disparate sources of data (whether qualitative alone or together with quantitative) is far from straightforward. Repeated reviewing and sorting of the voluminous and detail-rich data are integral to the process of analysis (Crowe, Cresswell, Robertson, et al., 2011). e\. Reporting the findings- Case study findings can have implications both for theory development and theory strengthen or weaken historical explanations of a case and, in certain circumstances, allow theoretical (as opposed to statistical) generalization beyond the particular cases studied (George, and Bennett, 2005). When reporting findings, it is important to provide the reader with enough contextual information to understand the processes that were followed and how the conclusions were reached. In a collective case study, researchers may choose to present the findings from individual cases separately before testing. They may establish, amalgamating across cases. Care must be taken E to ensure the anonymity of both case sites and individual participants (if agreed in advance) by allocating appropriate codes or withholding descriptors (Crowe, Cresswell, Robertson, et al., 2011).7. **Historical Research** Historical research is a type of qualitative research that looks at past events to draw conclusions as well as make predictions about the future (Historical Research Design: Definition, Advantages & Limitations, 2.013). It studies the meaning of past events in an attempt- to interpret the facts and explain the cause of events, and their effect in the present events. In doing so, researchers rely heavily on Primary historical data (direct accounts of events, archival data - official documents, personal records, and records of eyewitnesses) and less frequently on secondary\' historical data (information from persons who didn\'t witness the event; e.g. textbooks, newspapers, encyclopedias). The important aims for conducting historical research are (Berg, 2001):  To reveal or uncover the unknown;  To answer questions which have yet been answered: To search and identity the relationship of past happenings and their links with the present;  To record and assess past activities and achievements of individuals, agencies and institutions; and to assist in the understanding of human culture. According to Lundy (2008), there are five stages to undertake in historical researches, namely: a\. The identification of a researchable phenomenon that involves reading relevant literature, listening to current views about the phenomenon and reflecting on the researcher\'s interest before choosing a specific time period, person, phenomena or era related to the focus of the study; b\. The development of hypotheses or research questions and the identification of a theoretical perspective that will guide the process of data collection and results interpretation besides helping researcher focus and interpret historical occurrences as recorded; c\. The data exploration and collection stage where it can be the most time-consuming and labor- intensive part as the research process is dependent on the subject of study and the accessibility of data sources; d\. The checking of facts, evaluation of the validity and reliability of data, and the analysis of evidence gathered from each source where the researcher evaluate the data and forms generalizations to accepts or rejects hypotheses or to answer research questions and forms conclusions; and e\. The writing of the report in which findings are described along with interpretations and provides detailed supportive evidence in defense of the conclusions made. **Qualitative Sampling Techniques** Sampling is the selection of a subset of the population\" of interest in a research study (Turner, 2020). It is nearly impossible for a researcher to have the whole population participate in the research due to its sheer numbers and logistics, hence sampling methods are being employed.There are two types of Sampling Method (McCombes, 2019): 1\. Probability sampling involves random selection, it allows the researcher to make strong statistical inferences about the whole group. 2\. Non-probability sampling involves non-random selection based on convenience or other criteria, it allows the researcher to easily collect data. Qualitative researchers typically make sampling choices that enable them to achieve a deep understanding of the phenomenon they are studying (DeCarlo, 2018). They usually employed Non-probability sampling in their research, since their aim is not to test a hypothesis about a broad population, but to develop an initial understanding of a small or under-researched population (McCombes, 2019). The common non probability sampling method used in qualitative research are: 1\. Convenience Sampling- A convenience sample simply includes the individuals who happen to be most accessible to the researcher (McCombes, 20o19). Oftentimes this may include utilizing geographic location and resources that make participant recruitment convenient. It uses an open period of recruitment that continues until a set number of subjects, events, or institutions are enrolled. Here, selection is based on a first-come, first-served basis (Luborsky and Rubinstein, 1995). 2\. Purposive Sampling- This type of sampling, also known as judgment sampling, involves the researcher using their expertise to select a sample that is most useful to the purposes of the research (McCombes, 2019). a researcher selects participants from their sampling frame because they have characteristics that the researcher desires. A researcher begins with specific characteristics in mind that they wish to examine and then they seek out research participants who cover that full range of characteristics (DeCarlo, 2018). 3\. Snowball Sampling- If the population is hard to access, snowball sampling can be used to recruit participants via other participants. The number of people you have access to \"snowballs\" as you get in contact with more people (McCombes, 2019). A researcher identifies one or two people they would like to include in their study but then relies on those initial participants to help identify additional study participants. Thus, the researcher\'s samples builds and becomes larger as the study continues, much as a snowball builds and becomes larger as it rolls through the snow. It is an especially useful strategy when a researcher wishes to study a stigmatized group or behavior (DeCarlo, 2018). 4\. Quota Sampling- It takes purposive sampling one step further by identifying categories that are important to the study and for which there is likely to be some variation. In this non-probability sampling method, subgroups are created based on each category, the researcher decides how many people to include from each subgroup, and then collects data from that number for each subgroup (DeCarlo, 2018). 5\. Voluntary Response Sampling- It is similar to a convenience sample, a voluntary response sample is mainly based on ease of access. Instead of the researcher choosing participant and directly contacting them, people volunteer themselves by responding to a public online survey. (McCombes, 2019).**Data Collection Techniques in Qualitative Research** There are different types of qualitative research methods or methods in collecting qualitative data, these includes the following: 1\. **Interviews**- It is open-ended questions and probes yielding in-depth responses about people\'s experiences, perceptions, opinions, feelings, and knowledge. Data consists of verbatim quotations and sufficient content/context to be interpretable (Patton, 2002). It is a method of data collection that involves two or more people exchanging information through a series of questions and answers. The questions are designed by a researcher to elicit information from interview participants on a specific topic or set of topics. These topics are informed by the author\'s research questions. Interviews typically involve an in- person meeting between two people (an interviewer and an interviewee), but interviews need not be limited to two people, nor must they occur in-person (DeCarlo, 2018). **Qualitative interviews** allow respondents to share information in their own words and are useful for gathering detailed information and understanding social processes. Common qualitative interviews are:  **Life Histories**- These are a type of interview that concentrates on individual life and its told history with a view to understanding social processes determined by class, culture and gender (Bornat 2004). This method considers the individual as an active participant in the research process. Life histories provide the researcher with the opportunity to extend their understanding beyond the time they spend in the field. Also, it facilitates the researcher to collect more examples of everyday life that may be observed or recounted in participant observation and in- depth interviews (Reeves, Peller, Goldman, and Kitto, 2013).  **In-depth interviews** are semi-structured. Interviews where the researcher has topics and questions in mind to ask, but questions are open- ended and flow according to how the participant responds to each (DeCarlo, 2018). The primary goal of an in-depth interview is to hear what respondents think is important about the topic at hand and to hear it in their own words. 2\. **Focus Groups**- It is the method of asking questions and generating discussion among a group of people (Bhandari, 2020). It is an unstructured interview with multiple participants, which allow participants and a facilitator to interact freely with one another and to build on ideas and conversation. This method allows for the collection of group- 2. generated data (Austin, and Sutton, 2014). The researcher\'s aim is to get participants talking to each other and to observe interactions among participants, and act as the moderator. The moderator\'s job is not to ask questions to each person individually, but to stimulate conversation between participants. It is important to set ground rules for focus groups at the outset of the discussion (DeCarlo, 2018). Participants may ask each other follow-up questions, agree or disagree with one another, display body language that tells us something about their feelings about the conversation, or even come up with questions not previously conceived of by the researcher. It is just these sorts of interactions and displays that are ofinterest to the researcher. A researcher conducting focus groups collects data on more than people\'s direct responses to their question, as in interviews (DeCarlo, 2018). 3\. **Observations**- Is the method of understanding something in its natural setting (Bhandari, 2020). It involves descriptions of activities, behaviors, actions, conversations, interpersonal interactions, organization or community processes or any other aspect of observable human experience Patton, 2002). It is critical in both interviews and focus groups, as nonalignment between verbal and nonverbal data frequently can be the result of sarcasm, irony, or other conversational techniques that may be confusing or open to interpretation. It can also be used as a stand-alone tool for exploring participants\' experiences, whether or not the researcher is a participant in the process (Austin, and Sutton, 2014).  **Participant Observation** is a field strategy that simultaneously combines document analysis, interviewing of respondents and informants, direct participation and observation, and introspection (Denzin, 1989). It is a more active engagement with research participants, requiring the researcher to balance the insider versus outside continuum. The researcher through participation begins to act and behave like an insider, but always carries a sense of objectivity towards participant observation whereby one can separate oneself from the group being studied (Reeves, Peller, Goldman, and Kitto, 2013). **Qualitative Data Analysis** **Qualitative data analysis** is a process of gathering, structurin8 and interpreting qualitative data to understand what it represents (Dye, n.d.). Qualitative data is non- numerical and unstructured. **Qualitative data** generally refers to text, such as open- ended responses to survey questions or user interviews, but also includes audio, photos and video (Bhandari, 2020). Qualitative data is typically generated through (Dye, n.d.):  Interview transcripts  Surveys with open-ended questions  Contact center transcripts  Texts and documents  Audio and video recordings  Observational notes Once the data has been captured, there are a variety of analysis techniques available and the choice is determined by your specific research objectives and the kind of data you\'ve gathered. Common approaches include (Dye, n.d.): 1**. Content Analysis** - It is used to identify the patterns that emerge from text, by grouping content into words, concepts, and themes (Dye, n.d.). It helps the researchers quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts.As an example, researchers can evaluate language used within a news article to search for bias or partiality. Researchers can then make inferences about the messages within the texts, the writer/s, the audience, and even the culture and time of surrounding the text-(Columbia University, 2019). To analyze the text using content analysis, the text must be coded, or broken down, into manageable code categories for analysis (i.e. \"codes\"). Once the text is coded into code categories, the codes can then be further categorized into \"code categories\" to summarize data even further (Columbia University, 2019). There are two general types of content analysis: a\. **Conceptual Analysis** determines the existence and frequency of concepts in a text. The main goal is to examine the occurrence of selected terms in the data. General steps for conducting content analysis (Columbia conceptual University, 2019): i. Decide the level of analysis: word, word sense, phrase, sentence, themes; ii. Decide how many concepts to code for: develop a pre-defined or interactive set of categories or concepts. Decide either: a) to allow flexibility to add categories through the coding process, or b) to stick with the predefined set of categories\". 18 Terms may be explicit or implicit. Explicit terms are easy to identify. Coding of implicit terms is more complicated: researchers need to decide the level of implication and base judgments on subjectivity (an issue for reliability and validity). Therefore, coding of implicit terms involves using a dictionary or contextual translation rules or both. iii. Decide whether to code for existence or frequency of a concept. The decision changes the coding process. iv. Decide on how you will distinguish among concepts; v. Develop rules for coding the texts. After decisions of steps 1-4 are complete, a researcher can begin developing rules for translation of text into codes. vi. Decide what to do with irrelevant information: should this be ignored (e.g. common English words like \"the\" and \"and\"), or used to reexamine the coding scheme in the case that it would add to the outcome of coding? vii. Code the text: This can be done by hand or by using software. viii. Analyze your results: Draw conclusions and generalizations where possible. Determine what to do with irrelevant, unwanted, or unused text: reexamine, ignore, or reassess the coding scheme. Interpret results carefully as conceptual content analysis can only quantify the information. Typically, general trends and patterns can be identified. b\. **Relational analysis** develops the conceptual analysis further by examining the relationships among concepts in a text. General steps for conducting a relational content analysis (Columbia University, 2019): i. Determine the type of analysis: Once the sample has been selected, the researcher i. types of needs to determine what relationships to examine and the level of analysis: word, word sense, phrase, sentence, themes. ii. Reduce the text to categories and code for words or patterns. A researcher can code for the existence of meanings or words. iii. Explore the relationship between concepts: once the words are coded, the text can be analyzed for the following:  Strength of relationship: degree to which two or more concepts are related.  Sign of relationship: are concepts positively or negatively related to each other?  Direction of relationship:  the types of relationship that categories exhibit. For example, \"X implies Y\" or \"X occurs before Y\" or \"if X then Y\" or if X is the primary motivator of Y. iv. Code the relationships: a difference between conceptual and relational analysis is that the statements or relationships between concepts are coded. v. Perform statistical analyses: explore differences or look for relationships among the identified variables during coding. vi. Map out representations: such as decision mapping and mental models. 2\. **Narrative Analysis**- focuses on the stories people tell and the language they use to make sense of them (Dye, n.d.). It is used to understand how research participants construct story and narrative from their own personal experience. That means there is a dual layer of interpretation in narrative analysis. First the research participants interpret their own lives through narrative. Then the researcher interprets the construction of that narrative (Delve, Ho, L., and Limpaecher, 2020). 3\. **Discourse Analysis**- It is used to get a thorough understanding of the political, cultural and power dynamics that exist in specific situations. The focus here is on the way people express themselves in different social contexts (Nordquist, 2020). It examines how language functions and how meaning is created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language, as well as non- verbal aspects of communication such as tone and gestures. Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:  Books, newspapers and periodicals  Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements  Business and government documents  Websites, forums, social media posts and comments  Interviews and conversations By analyzing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups and how they communicate. 4\. **Thematic Analysis**- It is the process of identifying patterns or themes within qualitative data (Maguire and Delahunt, 2017). It is used to deduce the meaning behind the words people use. This is accomplished by discovering repeating themes in text. These meaningful themes reveal key insights into data and can be quantified, particularly when paired with sentiment analysis. Often, the outcome of thematic analysis is a code frame that captures themes in terms of codes, also called categories. So, the process of thematic analysis is also referred to as, "coding\" (Dye, n.d.). Braun &c Clarke (2006) provide a six-phase framework for doing a thematic analysis, they are as follows:**Step 1: Become familiar with the data** The first step in any qualitative analysis is reading, and re-reading the transcripts. The researcher should be very familiar with the entire body of data or data corpus (i.e. all the interviews and any other data he/she may be using) before going any further. At this stage, it is useful to make notes and jot down early impressions. **Step 2: Generate initial codes.** In this phase the researcher starts to organize the data in a meaningful and systematic way. This phase of work generates codes, not themes. Coding reduces lots of data into small chunks of meaning. A code is the most basic segment, or element, of the raw data or information that can be assessed in a meaningful way regarding the phenomenon (Boyatzis, 1998). Once the coding framework or template is defined, researchers then apply the same codes to the entire data set by labeling data extracts with relevant codes, making note of any potential patterns or connections between items that might inform subsequent theme development. Coding can be done manually or with the assistance of a computer program. **Step 3: Search for themes.** The third step involves examination of the coded and collated data extracts to look for potential themes of broader significance (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Themes do not simply emerge from the data; instead, themes are constructed by the researcher through analyzing, combining, comparing, and even graphically mapping how codes relate to one another. When creating and organizing themes, thematic maps are useful for visually demonstrating cross-connections between concepts and among main themes and sub themes (Braun and Clarke 2006). Themes should be independently meaningful but also \'work together to form a coherent whole-an analytic story. **Step 4: Review themes** Braun and Clarke (2006) described step 4 as a two-level analytical process. In the first level of analysis, the researcher looks at coded data placed within each. theme to ensure proper fit. He or she reviews all relevant codes and data extracts under each theme. At this point, data extracts can be re-sorted and themes modified to better reflect and capture coded data. Themes can be added, combined, divided, or even discarded. This first level of analysis is complete when the researcher is confident that the revised thematic map adequately covers all of the coded data to be included in the final analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006). Level two applies a similar set of questions to the themes in relation to the entire data set. The researcher here decides if individual themes fit meaningfully within the data set and whether the thematic map accurately and adequately represents the entire body of data (Braun and Clarke 20o6). The thematic map should clearly demonstrate how themes interrelate and how they represent the question or construct of interest. To accomplish this task, the researcher re-reads the entire data set to reexamine themes and to re-code for additional data that falls under the themes that have been newly created or modified in this phase, then revises the thematic map accordingly (Braun and Clarke 2006). Re- reading and revising codes and themes are expected parts of the analytic process.**Step 5: Define themes.** Once the thematic map has been refined, step 5 finds the researcher creating a definition and narrative description of each theme, including why it is important to the broader study question (Braun and Clarke 2006). The names of themes to be included in the final report are reviewed to ensure they are brief and adequately descriptive (Braun and Clarke 2006). The researcher then hones in on the most important aspect of each theme and which aspects of the data set it covers, creating a coherent narrative of how and why the coded data within each theme provide unique insights, contribute to the overall understanding of larger questions, and interact with other themes (Braun and Clarke 2006). **Step 6: Writing-up.** This final step involves writing up the final analysis and description of findings (Braun and Clarke 2006). The final report should move beyond mere description of codes and themes (King 2004). The report should weave a narrative that provides a clear, concise, and logical account not only of how a researcher interprets the data, but also why his or her selection of themes and interpretation of the data are important and accurate (Braun and Clarke, 2006)