ASC Workshop: Theorizing from Qualitative Data: From Data Collection to Analysis

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Abstract/Description

Qualitative research is often designed to be inductive, allowing for surprises in the field to shift the focus of a project or the analysis. To do this, researchers must be atuned to these moments of surprise and to learn to move beyond merely summarizing what they heard or observed to building an argument with the data. This workshop will focus on how to move from data collection to analysis (and back and forth between the two) to move beyond summary of data to theorizingwith the data. Topics will include the researcher(s) as an important part of data collection, the importance of reflexivity to understand how researchers, participants, and research context shape research questions and findings, distinguishing between the specificity of each context and generalizability, and engaging with the existing literature to develop or extend theory. We will discuss this both in broad terms and with examples from workshop participants’ projects or ideas.

Sub Unit

• Area XVII. Workshops / Qualitative Methods

Instructor

• Andrea Leverentz, North Carolina State University