OVERVIEW Now that you have interviewed a peer and have transcribed the interview, what next? How do you answer your research questions based on the data you have collected when the data are many pages of transcriptions? Just like the quantitative researcher uses raw numeral data to find statistical relationships, the qualitative researcher must use an analysis method in order to make sense of all of the transcripts and other qualitative data that is gathered. In order to begin analyzing qualitative data, a reasercher uses a process called coding to reduce hundreds of pages of transcriptions into codes that will help them to make sense of the data. The codes emerging from the data will then, in turn, be used to determine the themes. These themes will be used to help answer the research questions that are being investigated in the research. So, what is a code? A code is a word or label that is used to describe a segment of text. This segment is typically a line or a sentence. The assigning of codes to the data will help you to start to categorize and label similar thoughts and ideas that were presented in the raw data and reduce the data down to manageable units. Once the data is manageable, the qualitative researcher can then analyze these codes (this may take several processes) to generate themes. For example, you may have an interview question, “What is your favorite type of pet and why? From the answers of the people you interview, you may derive codes such as: Participant Quote Code Dogs because they are man’s best friend. Comfort Cats because they are the least scary companions. Comfort Snakes because they feel slimy. Strange Fish because they are quiet. Unintrusive What codes would you assign to what this interviewee said about her son? “My son had a great experience being in the high school band. He was always a shy boy, but when he played the trumpet, it was like he was another kid. He loved to perform in front of people. He loved solos! I always hated speaking in front of people, so I don’t know where he got that from. He even won several band competitions with his trumpet. He was so excited when he made first-chair as a junior in high school. He even won a college scholarship and is now a music major at Atlantic University.” What codes would you assign to the above quote from a proud mom? Did you list codes such as positive experience, transformational, performance, positive self-esteem? What other codes can you derive from this quote? Keep in mind that most codes will not be a word used in the sentence, but the researchers interpretation of the most important word that captures the sentence. INSTRUCTIONS 1. Open the Word document of the transcription of your first interview that you completed. 2. Next, consider the responses sentence by sentence. 3. Beside each sentence, write one or two code words based on that sentence in bold letters. A technique might be to use margin comments in MS word while highlighting complete sentences. Example: Title 1. My son had a great experience being in the high school band. Positive experience, band 2. He was always a shy boy, but when he played the trumpet, it was like he was another kid. Positive self-esteem 3. He loved to perform in front of people. Performance, positive self-esteem 4. He loved solos! Positive self-esteem, performance 5. I always hated speaking in front of people, so I don’t know where he got that fr 6. He even won several band competitions with his trumpet. Positive experience, success, band 7. He was so excited when he made first-chair as a junior in high school. Positive experience, success, band 8. He even won a college scholarship and is now a music major at Atlantic University. Success, college
