Lesson 3 Chapter 5-1

PLANS DATA COLLECTION

AND ANALYSIS PROCEDURES

Lesson 3
INTRODUCTION
Qualitative researchers have several techniques for data collection at their

disposal: the interview-structured, semi structured or unstructured, focus
group techniques, observations, reflexive field notes, pictures, public and
official documents, personal documents, historical
Primary Data Collection Techniques
• Interview
• Participant Observation
• Focused Group Interview
• Observational Evaluation
• Biography/Autobiography
• Questionnaire
1. Interview
• In this method, research participants are prodded to talk about
their experiences, feelings, beliefs, outlooks, etc
• The interview can take form of informal conversations, open-
ended, interviews or in-depth discussions.
• Interview can be one-time interviews, multiple interviews with
the same participants, multiple interviews with various
participants, or group interviews.
• They can also be structured, unstructured, and semi-structured,
in accordance to the research design used.
Structured Interviews
• Use a set of questions prepared by the researcher.

During the course of the interview, the researcher or
interviewer codes the responses.
Unstructured Interviews
• use open-ended questions which the interviewee or research participant

answers freely
Semi-structured Interviews
• Use both closed and open-ended questions

• When interviewing face to face, the researcher and participant engage in a
conversation, which is usually audio-recorded and the recording is
transformed into a written text, ready for analysis, through a process of
transcription.
2. Participant Observation
• In this method, the researcher immerses himself/herself in the natural

setting of the research participant.
• This can be a home, an office, an institution, etc
• The researcher’s immersion in the natural setting of research participants
enables him/her to see, hear, feel, and experience the research participants
daily life
3. Focus Group Interview
• 6 to 8 persons participate in the interview.

• The advantage of this is that critical issues or sensitive ones can be more
freely discussed with a group.
• Because of the variety and depth of opinions, views, perspectives expressed,
this type of interview is a very rich source of data.
• The moderator or researcher must be skilled in facilitating such group
discussion, and stay focused on the goal and topic of said interview.
4. Observational Evaluation
• The researcher may or may not participate in activities of the group being
observed.
• But mostly, observes and records both verbal and non-verbal behavior of a
person or group of persons.
5. Biography/ Autobiography
• Personal biographies offer a rich source of data or evidence that
can shed light or provide tentative answers to research questions.
• Perhaps even diaries can be added here, just like the Diary of Ann
Frank that offered much information or evidence on Nazi
atrocities.
• Another example is Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,”
which also provided much insight on the horrors of the Nazi
death camps where the author, Dr. Frankl, spent years as a
prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps.
Basic Types of Data Collection
• Observations
• Interviews
• Documents
• Audio and Visual Materials
1. Observation
• The researcher takes field notes on the behavior and activities of research
participants at the research site or in their natural setting.
• S/he records, in an unstructured or semi-structured (using prior questions
that the researcher wants to know) way activities at the research site.
• The qualitative observer (researcher) may take the role of a non-participant
observer or complete participant
2. Interviews
• Conduct face-to-face interviews with participants

• Do telephone interviews of participants or
• Engage in focus group interviews, with 6 or 8 interviewees
• The above interviews involve unstructured and generally open-ended
questions that are few in number and are intended to elicit views and
opinions from the participants
3. Documents
• These take the form of public documents (newspapers,

minutes of meetings, official reports) or private
documents (personal journals, diaries, letters, emails)
which are collected during the research process
4. Audio and Visual Materials
• May take the form of photographs, art

objects, videotapes, or any forms of sound.
The interview protocol may include the
following components:
• Heading
• Instruction to the interviewer, such as opening statements
• The key research questions
• Probes to follow key questions
• Transition messages for the interviewer
• Space for recording the interviewee’s comments, and
space in which the researcher records reflective notes.
Data Analysis Procedure
• Coding
• Recursive Abstraction
• Content or Discourse Analysis
• Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis
Software
1. Coding
• In this procedure, the research analyst reads the data and marks
segments within the data; this may be done at different times
throughout the process
• Each segment is labeled with a “code” – usually a word phrase that
suggests how the associated data segments inform the objectives.
• When coding is complete, the analyst prepares a reports via a mix of
summarizing the prevalence of codes, discussing similarities and
differences in related codes across distinct original sources/context,
or comparing the relationship between one or more codes
2. Recursive Abstraction
• Some qualitative data sets are analyzed without
coding; instead, recursive abstractions are used.
• In this kind of analysis, data sets are summarized
• The end result is a more compact summary that
would have been difficult to accurately discern
without the proceeding steps of distillation.
3. Content or Discourse Analysis
• In this kind of data analysis, the most basic technique is
counting of words, phrases, or coincidences of tokens within
the data.
• Other similar techniques are the analyses of phrases and
exchanges in conversational analyses.
• Content analyses is frequently used in sociology to explore
relationships, such as change in perceptions of race over time
or the lifestyle of temporal contractors.
4. Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data
Analysis Software
• This has replaced the detailed hand coding and labeling of the
past decades.
• These programs enhance the analyst’s efficiency at data
storage/retrieval and at applying the codes to the data
• Many programs offer efficiencies in editing, revising and coding
which allow for work sharing, peer review and recursive
examination of data.
• Common qualitative data analysis software includes:
MAXQDA QDA MINER,ATLAS. ti, Dedoose (mixed
methods) and Nvivo.
• (http://www.qrca.org/?page=typesqualresearch)
Generic Steps in Data Analysis
• Organize and prepare the data for analysis. This involves transcribing
interviews, optically scanning material, typing up field notes, or sorting and
arranging the data into different types, depending on the sources of
information
• Read through all the data. Obtain a general sense of the information and
reflect on its over-all meaning: What general ideas are participants saying?
What is the tone of ideas? At times, the qualitative researcher writes
marginal notes or starts recording general thoughts about the data at this
stage.
• Begin detailed analysis with coding process. It involves
taking data or pictures, segmenting sentences (or
paragraphs) or images into categories, and labeling
those categories with a term, often a term based on the
actual language of the participant (called an invivo term).
Rossman and Rollis define coding as the process of
organizing material into “chunks” before bringing
meaning to those “chunks”
• Use the coding process to generate a description of the setting or people as
well as categories or themes for analysis. Description involves a detailed
rendering of information about people, places or events in a setting. This
analysis is useful in designing detailed descriptions for case studies,
ethnographies, and narrative research projects. Then, use the coding to
generate a small number of themes or categories-about five to seven
categories. These themes are the ones that appear as major findings in
qualitative studies and stated under separate headings in the findings
section of the study.
• Decide how the description and themes will be represented.

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PLANS DATA COLLECTION

AND ANALYSIS PROCEDURES

Qualitative researchers have several techniques for data collection at their

• Use a set of questions prepared by the researcher.

• use open-ended questions which the interviewee or research participant

• Use both closed and open-ended questions

• In this method, the researcher immerses himself/herself in the natural

• 6 to 8 persons participate in the interview.

• Conduct face-to-face interviews with participants

• These take the form of public documents (newspapers,

• May take the form of photographs, art

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