1. Develop a research question
- A Qualitative study seeks to learn why or how, so the writer’s research must be directed at determining the why and how of the research topic. Therefore, when crafting a Research Question for a Qualitative study, the writer will need to ask a why or how question about the topic.
- The raw data tend to be interview transcriptions, but can also be the result of field notes compiled during participant observation or from other forms of data collection that can be used to produce a narrative.
- According to Polkinghorne, the goal of organizing data is to home in on the research question and separate irrelevant or redundant information from that which will be eventually analyzed, sometimes referred to as "narrative smoothing."
- Some approaches to organizing data are as follows:
This method is considered useful for understanding major events in the narrative and the effect those events have on the individual constructing the narrative. The approach utilizes an "evaluation model" that organizes the data into an abstract (What was this about?), an orientation (Who? What? When? Where?), a complication (Then what happened?), an evaluation (So what?), a result (What finally happened?), and a coda (the finished narrative). Said narrative elements may not occur in a constant order; multiple or reoccurring elements may exist within a single narrative.
- Polkinghorne's: Chronological Organization or Diachronic Organization also related to the sociology of stories approach that focuses on the contexts in which narratives are constructed. This approach attends to the "embodied nature" of the person telling the narrative, the context from which the narrative is created, the relationships between the narrative teller and others within the narrative, historical continuity, and the chronological organization of events. A story with a clear beginning, middle, and end is constructed from the narrative data. Polkinghorne makes the distinction between narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. Narrative analysis utilizes "narrative reasoning" by shaping data in a narrative form and doing an in-depth analysis of each narrative on its own, whereas analysis of narratives utilizes paradigmatic reasoning and analyzes themes across data that take the form of narratives.
- Bruner's functional approach focuses on what roles narratives serve for different individuals. In this approach, narratives are viewed as the way in which individuals construct and make sense of reality as well as the ways in which meanings are created and shared. This is considered a functional approach to narrative analysis because the emphasis of the analysis is focused on the work that the narrative serves in helping individual's make sense of their lives, particularly through shaping random and chaotic events into a coherent narrative that makes the events easier to handle by giving them meaning. The focus of this form of analysis is on the interpretations of events related in the narratives by the individual telling the story.
- Gee's approach of structural analysis focuses on the ways in which the narrative is conveyed by the speaker with particular emphasis given to the interaction between speaker and listener. In this form of analysis, the language that the speaker uses, the pauses in speech, discourse markers, and other similar structural aspects of speech are the focus. In this approach, the narrative is divided into stanzas and each stanza is analyzed by itself and also in the way in which it connects to the other pieces of the narrative.
- There are a multitude of ways of organizing narrative data that fall under narrative analysis; different types of research questions lend themselves to different approaches. Regardless of the approach, qualitative researchers organize their data into groups based on various common traits.
- Some paradigms/theories that can be used to interpret data:
| Paradigm or theory | Criteria | Form of theory | Type of narration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positivist/postpositivist | Internal, external validity | Logical-deductive grounded | Scientific report |
| Constructivist | Trustworthiness, credibility, transferability, confirmability | Substantive | Interpretive case studies, ethnographic fiction |
| Feminist | Afrocentric, lived experience, dialogue, caring, accountability, race, class, gender, reflexivity, praxis, emotion, concrete grounding | Critical, standpoint | Essays, stories, experimental writing |
| Ethnic | Afrocentric, lived experience, dialogue, caring, accountability, race, class, gender | Standpoint, critical, historical | Essays, fables, dramas |
| Marxism | Emancipatory theory, falsifiability dialogical, race, class, gender | Critical, historical, economic | Historical, economic, sociocultural analyses |
| Cultural studies | Cultural practices, praxis, social texts, subjectivities | Social criticism | Cultural theory as criticism |
| Queer theory | Reflexivity, deconstruction | Social criticism, historical analysis | Theory as criticism, autobiography |
- While interpreting qualitative data, researchers suggest looking for patterns, themes, and regularities as well as contrasts, paradoxes, and irregularities.
- The interpretation is seen in some approaches as co-created by not only the interviewer but also with help from the interviewee, as the researcher uses the interpretation given by the interviewee while also constructing their own meaning from the narrative.
- According to some qualitative researchers, the goal of data interpretation is to facilitate the interviewee's experience of the story through a narrative form.
- Narrative forms are produced by constructing a coherent story from the data and looking at the data from the perspective of one's research question.
2. Select or produce raw data
3. Organize data
4. Interpret data
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