Methods: Phase 1 5.0 Introduction
5.6 Data analysis
5.6.1 Analysis of the interview data 1 Familiarisation with data
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I listened repeatedly to audio recordings of the interviews, both during and after the transcription process to familiarise myself with the data. I viewed all video recordings once or more often where video recordings were required to develop or complete transcriptions. When transcriptions were complete I read the interview transcripts multiple times while I generated reflective notes in the margins. These notes documented personal reactions to what participants talked about, methodological notes, such as critical evaluation of interviewing skills and communication support techniques, and reflections about interesting or surprising data.
2. Generation of initial codes
The process of monitoring for patterns and recurrent categories began by detailed review of two transcripts, chosen for their contrasting use of language and styles of expression. One person with markedly impaired spoken output expressed herself in sparse, direct language, the other, while hesitant, used language rich in metaphor. Each transcript was scrutinised line by line and data were manually coded employing a range of initial coding techniques (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Saldana, 2009). Codes were identified as ‘a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence capturing, and /or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data’ (Saldana, 2009:3). Types of codes described by Saldana and prominent in this initial cycle of coding were:
Descriptive codes – for example describing and categorising the various impacts of aphasia
In Vivo codes – utilising participant’s own form of words (and own aphasic language) to describe experiences and reactions related to friendship
Affective codes - for example referring to emotions expressed by participants and values they ascribed to friendship
Process codes - referring, for example to participants’ actions and strategies in maintaining friendship
Versus codes (Wolcott, 2003) as participants defined, for example, qualities of friends who stayed in touch versus those who drifted away or differences between friends and family members
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During coding, I also added analytic memos to transcripts noting for example recurring themes, points of theoretical interest, surprises and convergence or divergence from both relevant literature and previous Research Group discussions.
I created shorthand codes in the margins of interview transcripts and marked the text using coloured post-it notes, highlighting and word processing review tools. I documented the different codes from each of the interviews and these lists formed the basis for a very preliminary grouping of data into some broader categories of codes (Silverman, 2010; Patton, 2002).
This line by line coding process was then repeated for each of the six first wave transcripts before I began a second cycle of pattern coding (Miles and Huberman, 1994) across the six interviews to identify patterns which pulled together groups of codes into some tentative overarching themes from the data to share with the Research Group interviewees.
The second wave of interviews took place concurrently with the early analysis described below, with generation of transcripts and initial coding following a similar process. First and second cycle coding of this second set of interviews were informed but not constrained by this first wave of data coding and analysis. Throughout this second cycle of coding I assigned outlying or idiographic codes to a category of ‘other’ for a further cycle of review after the Phase 2 interviews.
3. Generation of initial themes – first attempts at co-analysis
Timing of sharing preliminary data analysis from the first set of interviews with respondents who were also members of the Research Group posed a dilemma. Having immersed myself in pages and pages of verbal data, large quantities of verbally labelled codes and multiple piles of paper and post-it notes what was a manageable and accessible way of sharing data with this subgroup of individuals from the Research Group? How could I authentically engage Research Group members with aphasia who had no training and
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experience with qualitative data analysis in working alongside me to make sense of the data?
I convened a group meeting with the six respondents whom I had interviewed in order to probe their first thoughts on the data and to problem-solve next steps with the analysis. This meeting prompted three members of the group to signal their distress on reviewing the content (e.g. revisiting the early trauma of stroke) and the style (e.g. the perceived inarticulate nature of their description of experiences in their interview transcripts). This was despite extensive briefing about the nature of representing talk in interview transcripts which can shock and upset interviewees when they view their transcripts (Kvale and Brinkman, 2009). We agreed at this point that, rather than probe individual stories together, I would return to the data for more detailed analysis and bring common themes and categories of experiences to a full meeting of the Research Group.
4. Generation of initial themes
I returned to the data set of six Research Group member interviews and, moving back and forth multiple times between individual transcripts, the lists and patterns of grouped codes I generated an initial candidate thematic map (Braun and Clarke, 2006). This consisted of six overarching themes:
Aphasia and exile
Friendship and hard work
Communication and non-communication dimensions of friendship Reciprocity and the two way process of friendship
Friendship as a dynamic process Impacts and identity
I developed this set of themes with related patterns and categories of subsidiary codes as a visual mind map (Buzan, 2010) to take to a full meeting of the Research Group. Zuber-Skerrit and Fletcher (2007) note the relevance of non-linear, graphic representations of concepts in mind mapping as particularly relevant to an action research orientation to reflection on practice.
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I created a brief summary of each theme with illustrative stories and vignettes selected from interview transcripts and presented this to the Research Group for individuals to question, clarify or confirm. This interactive session acted in many ways as an accessible interim case summary (Miles and Huberman, 1994) enabling commentary on data gathered and synthesised thus far. Interim case summaries may also provide researchers with an opportunity to critique the quality of the data and identify any blind spots (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Following this session to pause and reflect on the data from the first six interviews, I repeated steps one to four with the remaining six interviews from Phase 1.
5. Reviewing the themes against the entire data set
Once all interviews had been analysed I reviewed the six major themes for internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity. Internal homogeneity refers to whether data hold together or ‘dovetail’ while external heterogeneity concerns whether individual themes are sufficiently clear and differentiated (Patton, 2002). This led to development of a refined overview mind map, which I again presented to the Research Group for discussion, questioning and pruning. We explored and discussed perceived anomalies and omissions and debated possible reasons for the presence or absence of particular issues within the interview data. We did this by referring to stories and experiences that had surfaced in the interviews of the six Research Group members and which they chose to share with the whole group. I also relayed to the Research Group examples, descriptions and stories from the other six interviews.
6. Defining and naming themes
Names and definitions of themes happened partly in the review process within Research Group meetings and partly in the process of my writing up of themes and sharing this writing with Research Group members with aphasia. Several theme names were altered to reflect the terminology used by participants. After some final discussion regarding the naming and (re)positioning of themes and sub-themes we verified that the revised mind map felt sufficiently clear and wide-ranging to provide distinct, visual pegs on
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which to hang stories from the research interviews, and to group participants’ personal experiences of friendship. We agreed the final version of our visual model of friendship and aphasia as a working model to support Phase 2 of the project.
7. Writing up themes
There is widespread consensus that writing for qualitative research represents an on-going process of analysis (Holloway, 2005; Wolcott, 2009). Collaborative writing is recognised as one of the more challenging aspects of participatory research where people have communication or learning difficulties (Nind, 2008). The process of writing up themes required a revisiting of stages 5 and 6 and enabled several further refining tweaks to theme names and terms chosen for sub-themes. In practice, I took charge of writing the first draft summary of Phase 1 Findings that became a working document for Phase 2 of the project. However in Research Group meetings, we continued to interact closely with the names, definitions and concepts of Phase 1 data themes throughout the innovation phase of the project. Core data themes were revisited as we developed materials for the Friendship Events and when we worked collaboratively on developing academic presentations that presented findings relating to major themes during year two of the project.
Due to the relatively small number of interviews and the nature of the data, where very long extended sequences of elicitation and verification over several pages sometimes represented a single coded item, I determined not to use CAQDAS software. Although keen to share data with co-researchers in the Research Group I was aware that CAQDAS software such as N-Vivo would be inaccessible to them. Early ventures with system crashes on uploading photographic, video and audio material were not encouraging and ultimately I recognised a personal preference for manual handling of data (Patton, 2002).
5.7 Summary
This chapter has described the range of methods employed during Phase 1 of the project. The practices and processes of participatory data collection and
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analysis have been described though, as these are challenging to disentangle from the iterative learning and reflection that fuelled our research journey, these will be illustrated and discussed more fully in Chapter 10. The chapter has also highlighted the range of ways in which interview techniques were adapted in order to address issues of inclusion when participants have impairments of spoken and written language. These were set in the context of maintaining standards of quality, rigour and transparency required by qualitative research.
Chapter 6: Contextualising the Findings