Category: Analyzing qualitative data

Asian Critical Race Theory as an Analytical Framework

This week's guest blogger is Ji Hyun Hong, who is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Georgia in Language and Literacy Education. Ji Hyun is a transnational Korean who has been traveling back and forth between Korea and the United States since the age of seven. Her continued experiences with racism in the U.S … Continue reading Asian Critical Race Theory as an Analytical Framework

Tips for organizing a qualitative research project

Older researchers like I am are likely to have numerous boxes or filing cabinets filled with records from prior research projects. These boxes or file folders include printed transcripts, fieldnotes, or drafts of manuscripts writing up findings, and copies of published articles relative to the topic. For scholars in 2022, however, records are likely to … Continue reading Tips for organizing a qualitative research project

“Theory” and “grounded theory”

Conducting a “true” grounded theory (if there such a thing) in which the researcher develops a “grounded theory” about a topic is very challenging. As originally construed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967), a grounded theory study attends to theoretical sampling, along with simultaneous data collection and analysis. Studies often involve larger numbers of … Continue reading “Theory” and “grounded theory”

Using screencasts to engage students of qualitative research

For those of you teach online, you know that it takes a good deal of work to create engaging screencasts that your students will enjoy watching. Creating a screencast is an assignment that I set for students in one of the courses I teach. I am always amazed by the creativity displayed in these screencasts. … Continue reading Using screencasts to engage students of qualitative research

Two pieces of advice in conducting qualitative research

One year when I had not done such a great job of scheduling my time, I found myself writing my conference paper the week before the conference. Have you been there? (Hopefully not!) My panic increased as I kept reading more and more literature that informed the argument that I was making (while failing to … Continue reading Two pieces of advice in conducting qualitative research

Approaches to examine storytelling

Researchers who use narrative inquiry focus on telling the stories of the participants of their studies. There are so many different approaches to narrative inquiry though — how might one begin? What is meant by the term “narrative”? That depends on the perspective to narrative that one takes. Some argue that narrative data can include … Continue reading Approaches to examine storytelling

Influential qualitative researchers: Harry F. Wolcott

Educational anthropologist Harry Wolcott (1929-2012) has written numerous books on how to do qualitative research. His early study investigated the work of a principal in The man in the principal’s office: An ethnography (Wolcott, 1973). Unlike many of his contemporaries, Wolcott argued for the merit of an n of 1 (Wolcott, 1995). One of his … Continue reading Influential qualitative researchers: Harry F. Wolcott

Memo writing as a way of being a researcher

In teaching qualitative data analysis, I’ve found that students are frequently surprised at the value of “memo writing.” This is perhaps because memo writing is frequently seen as an additional step in the process off data analysis that takes time out from the work of analyzing data. Yet, memo writing can serve an important role … Continue reading Memo writing as a way of being a researcher

Managing fear and anxiety in inductive analysis of qualitative data

There comes a time when qualitative researchers must begin working with the data that they have accumulated throughout a project, make sense of it, and present findings to others. Qualitative methodologists frequently recommend that the analytic process be pursued from the very beginning of a project – and implore researchers to begin data analysis while … Continue reading Managing fear and anxiety in inductive analysis of qualitative data

11 thinking “tricks” when analyzing data

Kathryn Roulston A number of authors who write about qualitative research have talked about “thinking” as it relates to doing qualitative research (Freeman, 2017; Jackson & Mazzei, 2012; Saldaña, 2015); and in particular doing qualitative data analysis. One older source that I still find helpful is Tricks of the trade: How to think about your … Continue reading 11 thinking “tricks” when analyzing data