David Palfreyman
Outline
 Qualitative data and how to analyze it.
 Your data
 Nvivo 8
2 March 2007
David Palfreyman
Types of qualitative data
Interviews
Text
Focus groups
Images
Documents
Audio
Observation
Video
Artifacts
2 March 2007
David Palfreyman
Research questions
 Do teachers in lower- and higher-resourced schools
have different attitudes to discipline?
May 2009
David Palfreyman
Units of analysis
LOTS
OF
DATA
(in bundles)
 Cases
 Attributes
 Data extracts (e.g. quotations)
 Codes (labels)
- Relations - Themes 2 March 2007
David Palfreyman
M
E
M
O
S
MS Word for smaller projects
 Search (CTRL+F; Shift+F4)
 Coding with formats (bold, italics, font, size, colour)
 Insert comments
 Collect quotations (Find formats, copy and paste)
2 March 2007
David Palfreyman
Set up your project in Nvivo
 Sources: input data (documents, media files, …);
memos.
 Nodes: store ideas and coding.
 Sets: group your sources and ideas.
May 2009
David Palfreyman
Analyze with NVivo
 Finding bits of data
(e.g. How many informants are over 25?
OR: Who mentions “commitment” in their interview?
OR: I had a document and some information about Mary – or was it
Maria…? – and did I make a note about her?)
 Coding: labelling bits of data
(e.g. This person finds ZU students “difficult” –like my previous
interviewee)
 Queries: asking questions of your data
(e.g. How has “commitment” been referred to in the focus groups?
OR: Do any of the participants make a connection between “family” and
“motivation”?
OR: Do men and women tend to differ in their priorities?)
2 March 2007
David Palfreyman
Seeing (and showing) the bigger picture
 Memos: record your thoughts about the data while
you remember them!
 Models: visualize what is going on in the data.
(e.g. concept maps, processes, categories, dimensions)
 Links: connect data items and content.
 Quantifying codes
(e.g. Is there a statistically significant difference
between men’s and women’s comments on this issue?)
May 2009
David Palfreyman
Online resources
Grounded Theory: A thumbnail sketch
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/grounded.html
(A clear summary of Grounded Theory as applied to actual data).
CAQDAS: A primer
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/research/software/caqdas_primer.html
(a detailed review of various softwares for QDA, comparing their features and also the theoretical
assumptions they embody).
Nvivo 8 tutorials
http://www.qsrinternational.com/support_tutorials.aspx?productid=18
http://qsrinternational.fileburst.com/Document/NVivo8/Teach_Yourself_NVivo_8_Tutorials.pdf
2 March 2007
David Palfreyman