“Can You Provide Us With an Example?" Putting Together a Book on Qualitative Data Analysis

• In Event: Tell Me How It Really Happened: Qualitative Analyses in Education Research

Abstract

Purpose
Researchers have often commented that far too little detail is provided in journal articles about qualitative data analysis. Richards and Morse (2013) stated “how abstracting is done is far too often presented as a mystery. A constant theme in the literature is that the theory ‘emerges’ from the data, but we have never had the privilege of seeing such an aspiration” (p. 120). In response, we published an edited book (Authors, 2019) about qualitative data analysis that focused on how researchers reached their conclusions about their qualitative studies. Based on the success of that book, the publisher invited us to publish a second edition. This second edition (Authors, forthcoming) contains all new chapters, and expands beyond the first edition through a focus on a broader range of topics and with the inclusion of mixed method research. In this paper, we provide “brief opening remarks” about the experience of putting together this expanded edition of the edited book.
Perspective
There are multiple ways that knowledge can be created. We hold a subjectivist epistemology, which believes that all knowledge is socially constructed, and that no objective reality that exists (Daly, 2007). However, within this subjectivist perspective, we also recognize a range of paradigms influencing people’s qualitative work (e.g., postmodernism, critical, social constructivism/interpretivism, and postpositivism). This book reflects range of paradigmatic approaches.
Methods and Data
For this expanded edition, we sent out a call for proposals widely, to many scholarly disciplines such as education, family science, health and human performance (e.g., nursing, leisure studies, sports psychology), and sociology. Researchers were asked to write about a study they had published between 2019 to 2021.
In reviewing submissions, we looked for diversity in terms of (a) methodology, (b) data sources, (c) topic, and (d) sample. Diversity was also reflected in the researchers, themselves, in terms of (a) size of research team, (b) geographical location of researcher, and (c) career progress (e.g., new and established scholars).
Results
A wide range of qualitative studies are included in the book, with methodologies such as autoethnography and institutional ethnography, photovoice, phenomenology, directed content analysis, grounded theory, and two mixed methods studies (one qualitatively influenced; the other quantitatively guided). Various disciplines are also reflected, including the three education-focused chapters presented in this symposium.
Through multiple drafts, we guided the authors to provide us with detail about their data analysis. For example, intercoder reliability was a process that several authors described. We encouraged them to describe how that was achieved (in some cases, authors effectively argued against this measure or against using QDAS [qualitative data analysis software]-influenced tools). The behind-the-scenes details shows the complexity of how data analysis occurs. An online eResource also supplements the book, consisting of figures, detailed tables, and documents that were part of the researchers’ analysis processes. Attendees will see examples of these in the symposium.
Significance
This book provides readers with the unique opportunity to be seemingly in the moment with qualitative researchers getting their own hands vicariously dirty with the data.

Authors

• Áine M. Humble, Mount Saint Vincent University

• Elise Radina, Miami University (OH)