Free Essay on Qualitative Data Analysis

Describe the key issues that you see in qualitative data analysis.

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The qualitative analysis focuses on text rather than numbers. The texts are mostly interview transcripts or participants observation notes. These texts try to identify what the participants felt, thought, or did at some point in time and it gives the real social experience. It involves the researcher to have an interactive session with the interviewee. Qualitative analysis is also a reflexive and an iterative process as it begins immediately during data collection rather than after data collection. It involves contextual understanding of the ideas of your respondent and get the deep meaning of his/her views (Young, 1996).

Discuss and identify a range of qualitative research methods applicable to different research topics.

There are different qualitative research methods that can be applied to different research topics. Action research as one of the methods seeks to reflect on the researcher as an active participant in the research. It involves the researcher to plan, take action and reflect on the results. Action research does not only help improve the organization one is in but also empowers the employees. Another technique that can be used in qualitative analysis is case study which tries to analyze a situation at hand in a broad manner. It investigates a single subject. It involves designing of the case study, conducting the case study, analyzing the case study evidence and finally coming up with conclusions, recommendations and implications. Appreciative inquiry as a research method investigates on that thing that is working well in the organization and focusing on new things that could work better and implementing them. Other methods would involve use of interviewing technique and filling in of questionnaires in order to record the feeling of the interviewee, use of participant diaries on what they have been recording and observation among many others (Cassell, 2001).

Explain how qualitative data can be prepared for analysis.

Interviewers have an option of note taking or tape recording during interviews for later analysis. But always tape recording is more appropriate as it allows concentration during the interview for both the interviewer and the interviewee. Tape recording provides complete data for the analysis process. After tape recording, transcribing can be done so as to produce the written version of the interview (Langer, 2006). This is always time consuming and requires accuracy in recording the feelings if the subject. So a lot of caution should be taken during the process. After getting the full script of the interview the researcher is required to take back the script to the interviewee for confirmation that the script expresses his true feelings and no word is omitted. After this then the researcher is ready for analysis (Simons, Lathlean & Squire, 2008).

Discuss what you found out about computer based methods for qualitative data analysis. Be sure to also discussion your reaction to the NVivo videos which you reviewed.

Computer based methods for data analysis are so interesting in that they save time and are more efficient compared to the manual analysis as seen in the NVivo videos. They are also able to produce quantitative data from the qualitative and this seems more advantageous. They help organize data once entered. These softwares can be integrated with MS word, excel and SPSS. Large amount of data can be analyzed as evident in the NVivo videos (Bauer & Kelle, 1996).

References

Bauer, M., & Kelle, U. (1996). Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis. Theory, Methods, and Practice. The British Journal Of Sociology, 47(4), 729. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/591094

Cassell, C. (2001). Book Review:Qualitative Methods in Management Research. Qualitative Research, 1(1), 118-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/146879410100100109

Langer, S. (2006). Book Review: Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide. Qualitative Research, 6(3), 421-423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794106068356

Simons, L., Lathlean, J., & Squire, C. (2008). Shifting the Focus: Sequential Methods of Analysis With Qualitative Data. Qualitative Health Research, 18(1), 120-132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732307310264

Young, D. (1996). Book Review. ComputeraAided Qualitative Data Analysis. Theory, methods and practice. Changes, 14(3), 246-246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1234-980x(199608)14:3<246::aid-cha5154>3.0.co;2-4