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Chapter 4 Research Method
The second step was to read through the transcripts of the interviews and the
observations, the observational notes and the reflective journal in order to obtain a
sense of the whole and to allow the researcher to be immersed in the data. Notes
were kept of initial thoughts and stored as memos in NVivo, with a link to the
particular passage of transcript or observational record. In accordance with Miles and
Huberman (1994), organisation of the qualitative data was achieved by editing with
the use of codes. In NVivo, nodes hold data which have been coded from sources
(interviews and observations). These “nodes” are repositories for codes. Three types
of nodes were used to structure the storage of the data: free nodes, tree nodes and
case nodes.
Free nodes are a stand-alone repository used for initial coding. Tree nodes are similar
to free nodes with two exceptions: they can have relationships with other nodes and
thus may be grouped into themes. They can have “children” and thereby have a
hierarchy imposed on them. Case nodes are used to generate a case file, which holds
all data related to an individual participant and is physically linked to their
demographic details. It is designed for tracking participants.
4.10.2 Data Analysis
When all of the data collection was complete the researcher analysed the sets of data
both within the sets and across the sets. Within-data-set analysis meant that each
interview was analysed in the context of all interview data and likewise
observational data were analysed in the context of all observational data. Across-
data-set analysis meant that the interview data were contextualised by the
observational data and this added to the analysis.
The strategies developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) were used for the analysis
of the interview and observation data. The analytical steps and methods are
summarised in Figure 4.4.
4.10.3 Step 1: Data Reduction – Assigning Codes and Coding the Data
The first step was about reducing the data.