week 9 discussion coding

For this Discussion, you will examine coding, categories, and themes in your qualitative data you previously collected.

To prepare for this Discussion:

  • Review Chapter 8 of the Ravitch and Carl text and Chapter 12 of the Rubin and Rubin text and consider the differences in coding, categories, and themes.
  • Use the Course Guide and Assignment Help found in this week’s Learning Resources to search for books, encyclopedias and articles related to coding, categories, and themes in qualitative research.
  • Review your coding of your phone interview transcript. Identify two or more codes that could be grouped into a category. Next, identify samples of text you chose to define the codes.
  • Do the same for one of the Scholars of Change videos that you coded.
  • Consider if you can detect a theme emerging from your data analysis process. If you can identify a theme, name and describe it. If you cannot, consider why this is the case.

Post an explanation of the differences between codes, categories, and themes. Provide examples from your work. Use your Learning Resources and the article you found to support your explanation.

resources

Saldaña, J. (2016).
The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 6, “After Second Cycle Coding” (pp. 273–289)

Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2016).
Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 8, “Methods and Processes of Data Analysis” (pp. 237–270) (previously read in Weeks 5, 6, 7, and 8)
  • Chapter 9, “Writing and Representing Inquiry: The Research Report” (pp. 271–297)

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2012).
Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 12, “Data Analysis in the Responsive Interviewing Model” (pp. 189–211) (previously read in Weeks 5, 6, 7, and 8)

Sample of the paper

Post an explanation of the differences between codes, categories, and themes. Provide examples from your work. Use your Learning Resources and the article you found to support your explanation.

Sample

An explanation of the differences between codes, categories, and themes.

Codes, categories and themes are different concepts integral to qualitative research analysis. According to Ravitch and Carl (2016) even before the start of the coding process, precoding is possible. Precoding is the a process of reading, questioning, and engaging with the acquired data to allow research to get familiarized with the data, using circling, color coding with markers or highlighters and/or underlining key words or phrases that stand out, writing notes or questions in the margins, jotting your first impressions, noting specific terminology, etc. and it can done by hand or using the computer(Ravitch and Carl, 2016). Once precoding is done, researcher starts coding as a process of assigning meaning to data, through a word or phrase that explains or describes what is present in the data (Ravitch and Carl, 2016). According to Saldaña (2016) coding in qualitative investigations is the process of identifying a word or short phrase that will stand as a symbol that can summarize the essence oflanguage-based data or visual data. Qualitative data analysis often involves both inductive (coming from the data) and deductive (coming from other sources such as theory or prior research) coding processes (Ravitch and Carl, 2016). While an inductive approach to coding stays as close to the data as possible, deductive coding searchers for something specific normally taken from prior literature or prior research (Ravitch and Carl, 2016).

There are different types or styles of coding and research can start by “open coding” or summarizing segments of data and then applying “axial coding” (also called thematic clustering or pattern coding) by starting to see how these codes come together into coding categories (or clusters) from which researcher may establish sets of concepts or themes (Ravitch and Carl, 2016). Concepts are ideas and researcher should look for those that are jargons in certain fields of study; abstract nouns; metaphors and are implicit comparisons; or descriptions of characteristics, for example (Rubin and Rubin, 2012). According to Rubin and Rubin (2012) themes display the relationship between two or more concepts and are “summary statements, causal explanations, or conclusions” (p.194), offering explanations of “why something happened, what something means, or how the interviewee feels about the matter” (p.194).

Examples from Kundert (2012) and phone interview with fellow Walden student

The process of analyzing the video and its transcript called “Battling drug addiction in the heartland” (Kundert, 2012)started by precoding as I was trying to familiarize myself with the content provided by reading and watching it multiple times, while highlighting words or phrases that got my attention. Next, I started the coding process by looking for words or phrases that could summarize the participant experience or meaning given to social change. I may consider this process as a deductive process, as I was looking for the participants feelings or perceptions related to social change; but also inductive, as I was attentive to other possible ways that the participant would have defined social change. The four code words selected were distress, powerlessness, guilt and empowerment. I have followed guidance from Laureate Edition video (2016) to make sure that the meaning of each of these codes is clear to me before I start to see some commonalities among those different codes.

A second example can be taken from listening and the transcript of a phone interview with a fellow Walden student about social change. One more time I started by precoding as I was trying to familiarize myself with the content provided by listening and reading it multiple times, while highlighting words or phrases that got my attention with different color codes. Next, I started the coding process by looking for words or phrases that could summarize the participant experience or meaning given to social change. I also may consider this process as a deductive process, as I was looking for the participants feelings or perceptions related to social change; but also inductive, as I was attentive to other possible ways that the participant would have defined social change.

From this phone interview I have defined the following codes: awareness (by being proactive and “finding areas where people struggle), empowerment (by offering solutions (“bringing things, educating, giving out fliers”) and inclusiveness (“benefiting all”). This process could be considered as an open coding. Next, axial coding could be an option and the emerging codes by start coming together into coding categories (or clusters) from which sets of concepts or themes could be established (Ravitch and Carl, 2016). So, our codes are: distress, powerlessness, guilt, empowerment, awareness and inclusiveness. We may put awareness, distress, guilt and powerlessness in a cluster or category called call for change; and could put empowerment and inclusiveness as a second set cluster or category called change in action. I am not sure about those categories and I think I can’t yet define themes due to the paucity of data (only one video and one phone interview). The collection and analysis of more data could change the initial coding as to accommodate new findings (Benaquisto & Given, 2008). According to (Benaquisto & Given, 2008t) newly discovered codes or the refinement of existing codes allow concepts to be “reconceptualized and incorporated into broader, more abstract categories, whereas others are refined by seeking out possible variations in their properties or dimensions’ (p.9).

References

Benaquisto, L., & Given, L. (2008). The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. New York: Sage.

Kundert, J. (2012). Battling drug addiction in the heartland (video file).

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016).Visualizing data with Word or Excel [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2016). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2012). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Post an explanation of the differences between codes, categories, and themes. Provide examples from your work. Use your Learning Resources and the article you found to support your explanation.

 
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