4.3 Results
4.3.5 Chapter 2 case
This factor is similar to the notion of triangulation. The use of interviews along with field observation and analysis of existing documents suggests that the topic was examined holistically. This helps to build credibility in the findings as well as introduces other perspectives that a single method may have ignored.
2) Audit Trail:
This is essentially a permanent record of the original data used for analysis and the researcher’s comments and analysis methods. Audit trail allows others to examine the thought process involved in the researcher’s work and allows them to assess the accuracy of his/her conclusions. This is basically about getting an outside view point on the procedure that may have influenced the position taken.
3) Member Checks:
This allows research participants access to the notes and conclusions of the researcher. This helps the participants to determine whether the researcher has accurately described what he/she was told. This is quite effective and corrective in approach. The research participants have an opportunity to determine if the researchers have adequately captured what they were thinking or what they actually meant in responses they gave. Any error of judgment or misconception or misinterpretation identified during this process could be handled at this stage making this a practical way of increasing the credibility and acceptability of a research finding. Member check is a solid validation process in qualitative studies.
4) Research Team:
This method or factor assumes that team members keep one another honest and on target when describing and interpreting their data. Sometimes an outside person is
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asked to observe the process and raise questions of possible bias or misinterpretation where appropriate.
5) Debriefing:
This consists of having an individual outside the project question the meanings, methods, and interpretations of the researcher. The researcher is obligated to report the entire process to this individual who is at liberty to ask all manner of question regarding how the research was conducted and the final outcome. His or her views on the entire process are very vital to the credibility of the research outcome.
3.5 ELEMENTS OF QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS:
Many elements make up the data analysis process in qualitative studies.
However, the following points discussed below generally situate qualitative data analysis in the parlance of empiricism. These elements are:
1.
Analysis Is Holistic And Multi-Dimensional:
Rather than concentrate on specific key variables, qualitative analysis attempts to grasp the totality of the socio-cultural condition, the historical development, and the entirety of what that research subject represents. In essence, all of these help the researcher to address the problems or objectives holistically.2.
Analysis Is Descriptive, In-Depth And Longitudinal:
The analysis is also very descriptive in terms of specifying what transpired; in-depth in terms of going deep in revealing insightful details; and longitudinal in terms of the length of time and period the analysis covers so as to situate the research as well as the findings in a period in history.3.
Analysis Is Naturalistic: This actually implies that the analysis
deals with direct observations under the natural settings of the subject under investigation. The implication again is that the data gathered are natural behaviors of people or the subject and so the analysis produces findings that relate to the real world; not something imagined in the rarefied mind of the researcher. It is devoid of artificialities and computational manipulations of the original information to meet some standardized way of doing research.4.
Analysis Is Humanistic:
Qualitative data analysis permits the researcher to interact closely with the data and to look at the problems from the insider perspective. By making human beings and their behavior become only94 | P a g e
statistical figures or numbers, quantitative analysis dehumanizes human beings. In contrast, qualitative analysis is dialectical and interactive.
5.
Data For Analysis May Be Recorded And Presented In Oral Or Written Forms, In Audio Forms Or In Any other Visual Or Art Forms
: This enriches the accessibility mode for all those who are interested in the outcome. Its ability to be produced in all of these forms is also a plus in terms of acceptability and credibility.6.
Analysis Is Generally Not Aimed At Testing Specific Hypothesis And The Data Usually Cover A Few Numbers Of Cases:
This is another unique element of qualitative data analysis. The analysis does not concentrate on testing any particular hypothesis as is the case in quantitative data analysis. Here, the so-called hypothesis is never a finished outcome as it continues a refinement process even while the analysis remains ongoing.3.6 WRITING THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REPORT
Writing the qualitative research report is a very complicated process compared to the straight forwardness involved in quantitative research reports. Qualitative data come in form of sentences, extended quotes, paragraphs of descriptions, and even pictures and diagrams. So it is very difficult to condense these into numerical tables and charts and then begin to subject human actions and reasoning to mere numbers.
The point being made here is not to lampoon or simplify quantitative data analysis; rather, attention needs to be pointed to the fact that there are human actions that cannot be adequately represented in figures or percentages or any other form of quantitative representation. In this regard, the fact that 90 percent said so is not the issue but that there is a unique phenomenon coming out of observing a subject for a long time in a particular research situation.
Qualitative research reports is written in a loose narrative style that employs many devices used in novels and short stories. Keyton (2001) as cited in Wimmer &
Dominick (2011) describes three separate styles that can be adopted by authors of qualitative research reports thus:
1.
Realist
: A dispassionate third-person point of view that removes himself from the subject of analysis.95 | P a g e
2.
Confessional
: This is a first-person point of view that reveals much about the author alongside issues of the analysis.3.