Poststructural Theories of Language and the Limits of Coding Data

• In Event: Qualitative Data Analysis and Its Influence on Educational Practice and Policy

Abstract

The objective of this theoretical and methodological paper is to use poststructural theories of language, especially Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, to critique a common data analytic practice in “conventional humanist qualitative inquiry” called coding data. The presenter argues that coding data as described in many introductory qualitative textbooks is a positivist practice that was introduced along with grounded theory and constant comparison analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) almost 50 years ago to encourage researchers to attend to their data and not let a priori theory overdetermine their analysis. However, too many researchers now code data without attending to a priori theory, assuming that data is somehow neutral rather than normalized and regulated by dominant theories. In this way, words are treated as brute data waiting to be labeled with other words, codes; and using a quasi-statistical practice, researchers even count codes. The problem that pervades thinking of data analysis as coding data is that low-level empirical materials are coded using some elementary classification without explicit reference to theory, thus producing pedestrian and insignificant findings that don’t contribute strong theory to educational research, practice, and policy. The presenter argues that we continue to teach qualitative data analysis as coding data because the practice is teachable. It is much more difficult to teach someone how to think with theory (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012) to do what Kvale and Brinkman (2009) called a “theoretically informed reading” of data.

References
Glaser, Barney G. & Strauss, Anselm L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Jackson, Alecia Y. & Mazzei Lisa A. (2012). Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. London, UK: Routledge.
Kvale, Steiner & Brinkmann, Svend. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

Author

• Elizabeth A. St. Pierre, University of Georgia