Qualitative Research Basics: A Guide for Engineering Educators

Using database software for data management involves the following:
• Creating fields for, at minimum, the ID number and location of the segment, the
category of the segment, the theme(s) represented by the segment, and the text of
the segment
• For each coded segment, pasting the selected text from the original document to
the text field
• Filling in the ID number and category name for each segment (the themes will be
entered later)
For example, two records might look like this (the theme field will be discussed later):
ID Location Category Theme Text
7 Transcripts,
p. 118
5 Transcripts,
p. 87
Time Selfpacing
Fit Critical
mass
In high school, my parents made me
study at night, but here, I had to decide
when and how much to study and I got
caught up in other things and never got
around to it.
I looked around and there wasn’t
anybody like me in the class or really in
the whole engineering school.
Essentially, an electronic grid of numbered segments (records) is being created for
storage and sorting. Spreadsheets can serve the same function, although special database
programs are more suited for more complicated text manipulations. Selecting the
“memo” option during creation of the text segment field in Access expands the amount of
text allowable in the field.
Displaying the Data
Even when the data have been reduced in quantity and coded carefully, it is hard to
develop a sense of the patterns and meanings they suggest until they can be visually
scanned in their categories. Some researchers cut and paste the coded data at this point on
to long sheets of paper or group together index cards on which they have pasted the
segments of interest; those using computers sort their records and visually scan them or
obtain printouts by category. In the example above, separate printouts or screen displays
of each category (time, fit, money, etc.) would be made, allowing the researcher to look
at all the text segments that have been placed into this category together. Ways of
displaying the data will vary according to the resources that the researcher has, the type
of data and study, and the amount of data on hand. Through looking at the assembled
segments, the researcher can decide to change the category label in the field, to move
some segments to other categories where they fit better, to split one category into more
than one and recode the segments accordingly, or to rename to category or readjust its
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