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Chapter 3 Research Framework
hunches to explain the data. The final stage of Morse and Field’s (1996) analysis
framework involves recontextualising the data, which involves developing an
emerging theory that is applicable to other settings and other populations.
These cognitive processes typically take place regardless of the approach to analysis.
Morse and Field (1996) explained that these cognitive processes thus need a
structure around them or an approach to guide the researcher. The most frequently
used approaches include thematic analysis and content analysis. Thematic analysis
involves the search for and identification of common threads/themes that extend
throughout the data (Leininger, 1985). The first task is to read and re-read the data in
their entirety, and then reflect on the data as a whole. Themes, which are an outcome
of this coding and categorisation process, then appear as significant concepts linking
substantial portions of the data together. Content analysis is an alternative approach
and involves analysis by topic, whereby each data set is segmented into topics and
then categories (Babbie, 2001). These categories are typically broad descriptions of
the data. Once the categories have ample data the researcher may then subcategorise.
The researcher may also look for relationships between categories. Thus a coding
hierarchy develops.
Other approaches to qualitative data analysis put forward by other experts also
suggest that the analysis is about reducing the data into more manageable quantities
and seeing what’s there (Miles and Huberman, 1994). This mirrors the approaches
put forward by Morse and Field (1996) and is about reducing the data down to
themes or categories. Similarly, Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that qualitative
data analysis should involve three main steps: data reduction, data display, and
conclusion drawing and verification.
Data reduction involves assigning codes and coding the data. Codes are tags or labels
for assigning units of meaning to the transcribed data. Codes are usually attached to
chunks of data rather than individual sentences. These codes may later be
categorised in order to organise the data and to make retrieval easier (Saldana, 2009).
Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that the coding process can be made easier by
the creation of a “start list” or a list of codes identified prior to the fieldwork. This
start list may be compiled from a literature review or from hypotheses. The codes in