1. ORGANIZING AND PRESENTING QUALITATIVE DATA
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION & KEITH MORRISON

2. STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
Tabulating data
Seven ways of organizing and presenting data analysis
Narrative and biographical approaches to data analysis
Systematic approaches to data analysis
Methodological tools for analyzing qualitative data

3. TABULATING DATA (Accompanying table)
Key: P1 = Primary 1, P 6 = Primary 6, F3 = Secondary Form 3, F5 = Secondary Form 5.
The left hand column indicates the number of the respondent (1-12) and the level which the respondent taught (e.g. P1, F3 etc.).
Where data for respondents in each age phase are similar they are grouped into a single set of responses by row; where there are dissimilar responses they are kept separate.
The right hand column indicates the responses. In many cases respondents all gave similar responses in terms to the topic (strengths and weaknesses of English language teaching); these are grouped together.

4. Q7: Strengths and weaknesses of English language teaching
1. P1
Students started learning English at a very young age and they should be good at it. However, this could also be a disadvantage as students were too young to learn English and to understand what they were taught
2-6: P6
These respondents all commented that individual schools had great autonomy over syllabus design. Consequently, some syllabus contents were too rich to be covered within the limited time span. Therefore, it was hard to make adjustments, though students could not cope with the learning requirements. This put pressure on both teachers and students. Worse still, some schools made students learn other foreign languages apart from English, and that made the learning of English more difficult.
7-9: F3
10-12: F5

5. SEVEN WAYS OF ORGANIZING AND PRESENTING DATA ANALYSIS
By groups of people
By individuals
By issue or theme
By research question
By instrument
By case studies
By narrative account

6. NARRATIVE APPROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS
Humans make meaning and think in terms of ‘storied text’, which guides their actions.
Narrative analysis, together with biographical data, can give the added dimension of realism, authenticity, humanity, personality, emotions, views and values in a situation.

7. NARRATIVE APPROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS
Narratives
pass on information
bring information to life
meet people’s psychological needs in coping with life
help a group to crystallize or define an issue, view, value or perspective,
can persuade or create a positive image,
help researchers and readers to understand the experiences of participants and cultures
contribute to the structuring of identity

8. BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS
Biographies
tend to follow a chronology
report critical or key events and moments
report key decisions and people
can establish causality
May restore broken identities or shattered futures

9. NARRATIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS
Narratives and biographies are selective , based on:
Key decision points in the story or narrative
Key, critical (or meaningful to the participants) events
Themes
Behaviours
Actions
People
Key experiences
Key places

10. SYSTEMATIC APPROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS
Comparing different groups simultaneously and over time
Matching the responses given in interviews to observed behaviour
Analyzing deviant and negative cases
Calculating frequencies of occurrences and responses
Assembling and providing sufficient data that keeps separate raw data from analysis

11. SELECTIVITY IN QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OCCURS BECAUSE OF . . .
Data overload
First impressions
Availability of people
Information availability
Positive instances
Internal consistency
Uneven reliability
Missing data
Revision of hypotheses
Confidence in judgement
Co-occurrence (may be mistaken for association)
Inconsistency

12. STAGES IN ANALYSIS Generating natural units of meaning
Classifying, categorizing and ordering these units of meaning
Structuring narratives to describe the contents
Interpreting the data

13. TWELVE TACTICS IN ANALYSIS
Counting frequencies of occurrence
Noting patterns and themes
Seeing plausibility
Clustering
Making metaphors
Splitting variables

14. TWELVE TACTICS IN ANALYSIS
Subsuming particulars into the general
Factoring
Identifying and noting relations between variables
Finding intervening variables
Building a logical chain of evidence
Making conceptual/theoretical coherence

15. CONTENT ANALYSIS Briefing Sampling Associating Hypothesis development
Hypothesis testing
Immersion in the data
Categorizing
Incubation
Synthesis
Culling
Interpretation
Writing
Rethinking

16. METHODOLOGICAL TOOLS FOR ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA
Analytic induction
Constant comparison
Typological analysis
Enumeration