An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

The greater proportion of females in both sub-samples reflects the gender balance in eachcongregation. The ethnic balance was also a fair reflection of the congregations.3.9 Analysis FrameworkHammersley (1993) disputed the idea that ethnography can generate theory yet Brewer(2000) takes the view that it is possible to generate theory from ethnographic research. Helists two approaches for the ethnographer to generate theory. These approaches areanalytical induction and grounded theory.To add to the body of literature on Spiritual Healing, it may be possible to generate theoryfrom the data collected. The initial proposal was not, however, intended to develop theoryor a theoretical frameworGrounded theory” has not been used although this approachcould be „listed as one criteria by which to judge ethnographic data‟ Brewer (2000:148). InGill‟s (1996) account of the practical implications of discourse analysis, she noted thatsignificant aspects of interviews are not always available for analysis. The rich interviewand observation data coupled with the limitation of the thesis mean that significant aspectsof interview and other data has been excluded from the analysis. As noted above, also theauthor‟s personal biography, although is included in the introduction as a „PersonalJourney‟ is not the focus of the analysis. Nonetheless the method of auto-ethnographyinfluences the thesis through critical reflection on theoretical frameworks used as part ofthe reflective processes.On examining models of data analysis such as discourse analysis (Brewer 2000, Miles andHuberman 1994) and McCracn‟s (1988) model, the latter was chosen after learning touse the NVivo coding framework (Bazeley & Richards 2000) and linking this with thedifferent stages of analysis that are required for this ethnographic study. McCracn‟s five90