Designing Research for Qualitative Data Analysis
"Qualitative data analysis aims to make sense of the abundant, varied, mostly nonnumeric forms of information that accrue during an investigation. As qualitative researchers, we reflect not only on each piece of data by itself but also on all the data as an integrated, blended, composite package. Increasingly, qualitative researchers are participants in interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research teams for which analytic and interpretive processes are necessarily complementary, distinct, clearly articulated, and critical to the larger investigation. We search for insight, meaning, understanding, and larger patterns of knowledge, intent, and action in what we generate as data. Approaching this task in a responsive, inductive, transparent, yet systematic way demands our best balance of good science, appropriate rigor and quality, and openness to unanticipated findings. Many qualitative studies now include multiple sources of data, including narrative or textual and visual (e.g., photographs, videos, creative works and art, and theatric or performative components) information for analysis. Thorne (2008) describes the analytic process as moving 'from pieces to patterns' (p. 142) through the activities of organizing, reading and reviewing mindfully, coding, reflection, thematic derivation, and finding meaning."
(Jennifer B. Averill)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
QSR International: NVivo 10
"If you want to get an edge by better understanding the explosion of unstructured data in the world today, you need NVivo - powerful software for qualitative data analysis. Whether you are working individually or in a team, on Windows or Mac, are new to research or have years of experience, there's an NVivo option to suit you."
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
NUD*IST: Qualitative Data Analysis System
"NUD*IST software was first developed by Tom Richards to support social research by Lyn Richards. One of the first qualitative research programs of its kind, the product stood for 'Non–Numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing'. It helps to change the way that qualitative research is conducted."
(QSR International Pty Ltd)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
