Reflections on my journey from fieldwork to thesis

1
Reflections on my journey from fieldwork to thesis

• Waheed Hammad
• Research Students Seminar
• UEA
• 24/4/2008

2

• Data analysis
• the process of bringing order, structure, and
  interpretation to the mass of collected data
  (Marshall and Rossman,1999)
• It involves making sense of the data in terms
  of the participants definitions of the
  situation, noting patterns, themes, categories
  and regularities (Cohen et al., 2007)

3

• Analysis during data collection
• In the course of fieldwork, ideas about
  directions for analysis will occur. Patterns take
  shape. Possible themes spring to mind. Hypotheses
  emerge that inform subsequent fieldwork (Patton,
  2002).
• Listening to the interviews and transcribing them
  on a daily basis.
• Picking up the emerging themes.
• Initial themes were useful in reshaping the
  remaining interviews and provided a basis for
  subsequent data analysis.

4

• Analysis after data collection
• Data analysis is a complex and time-consuming
  task. It is the most mysterious aspect of
  qualitative research (Maxwell, 2005)
• Qualitative analysis is particularly difficult
  for a would-be qualitative researcher who can
  see the merits of a qualitative approach to data
  generation , but is less clear about what can be
  done with the products (Mason, 2002)

5

• Organizing the data using MaxQDA
• The analysis of qualitative data involves
  creativity, intellectual discipline, analytical
  rigor, and a great deal of hard work. Computer
  programs can facilitate the work of analysis, but
  they cant provide the creativity and
  intelligence that make each qualitative analysis
  unique. (Patton, 2002)
• Entering interview transcripts into the
  programme.
• Creating seven text groups based on the seven
  categories of participants.

6

• Data coding
• the formal representation of analytic
  thinking (Marshal Rossman, 1999). It involves
  devising a consistent system for indexing the
  whole of a data set according to a set of common
  principles and measures (Mason, 2002)
• During this process, categories (or codes) are
  generated and then chunks of data are indexed (or
  coded) according to generated categories.
• Reading through the data to seek the shape of
  the forest amid the trees (Gerson Horowitz,
  2002).
• Generating categories (codes) as reading
  progresses.

7

• Revisiting the coding system using the
  flexibility of MaxQDA.
• Coding outcome 204 categories allocated to 3375
  text segments.
• Retrieving coded data segments.
• Conducting first level analysis examining,
  comparing and reporting my participants
  perceptions of the issue under investigation.
• Emerging little interesting issues.
• Conducting second level analysis digging deeper
  into my participants responses in order to
  interpret the meanings of their experiences.

8

• Document analysis
• Three types of school documents were analyzed
• Minutes of meetings of school boards.
• Minutes of meetings of the boards of trustees.
• Minutes of meetings of the undersecretary
  with secondary head teachers.
• Objectives
• Building a model of decision-making in the sample
  schools.
• Exploring the idea of centralized control.

9

• Analysis outcome 150 pages of analysis
• Identifying the big themes that form the
  thesis.
• Three themes were identified
• A model of decision-making in the sample schools.
• The school culture as it relates to SDM.
• Response to structural change.