Data Analysis

The analysis of the data gathered during the review of the documentation, the communicative daily life stories and in-depth interviews will also be carried out under the paradigm of the communicative methodology. This mainly implies focusing the analysis on two dimensions: the exclusionary and the transformative dimension. The first dimension refers to all those elements and interactions that represent a barrier to identifying violent situations, to overcoming gender violence at universities or to

exploring pathways for prevention. On the contrary, the transformative dimension of the data analysis focuses on situations and interactions that make social change possible and contribute to a transformation of the reality under study.

In this regard, several categories have been established to code and analyze the data obtained in the interviews and communicative daily life stories. The categories that were established correspond to the research questions that guide the present research and the objectives set out in the beginning. Thus, a distinction is made between the elements that indicate the presence or not of gender violence in communicative acts, between the communicative acts that either contribute to the perpetuation of gender violence and those communicative acts that promote its overcoming, and last but not least, a distinction is made between elements that facilitate prevention of gender violence at Spanish universities and those that represent barriers to it. Table 6 illustrates these categories, which will be explained below.

Table 6: Categories for the data analysis

The category Presence of gender violence in communicative acts basically refers to the distinction of communicative acts in an interaction between people belonging to the university community that denote either power communicative acts or dialogic communicative acts. The data obtained in the codification according to this category contributes to defining specific elements that can help to easily identify when a situation experienced among students and/or faculty contains violence or not. Those interactions that contain violence are then coded with number 1, whereas elements pointing to relationships free from gender violence are coded with number 2.

Exclusionary Transformative Presence of gender violence in

communicative acts 1 2

Communicative acts related to gender

violence 3 4

Prevention of gender violence 5 6

As a continuation of the previous category, the category denominated Communicative

acts related to gender violence helps to identify what kind of interactions contribute to

reproducing gender violence in Spanish higher education institutions, referring to power communicative acts according to the theory of communicative acts (Soler & Flecha, 2010) outlined previously. At the same time, it helps to evidence also those interactions that contribute to overcoming the use of power communicative acts and instead promote dialogic communication.

The category Prevention of gender violence thus encompasses situations, and venues that either hinder the prevention or resolution of gender violence or represent an opportunity to promote prevention. The elements identified under this category contribute to define specific pathways for the promotion of gender violence prevention in Spanish universities drawing from the knowledge of the scientific community, the international references and the cultural intelligence of the university community participating in this research. Thus, through the egalitarian dialogue intersubjective knowledge on the impediments and opportunities for the prevention of gender violence is constructed.

The analysis of the data was developed with the Atlas.ti software for qualitative data analysis. This program makes it possible to follow the previously established codification determined by the communicative approach as well as it allows new categories to emerge from the interviews. In this vein, I have codified the interviews according to subcategories that came from the participants’ contribution which were then grouped in the six pre-established groups. This codification has been crucial for the subsequent divisions of the chapter on the results. The Atlas.ti software allows the analysis of audio data, thus, data was coded in the audio file and only the quotations that were finally included in the present work have been transcribed.

3.8. Brief conclusions

The main ideas of the methods section in the present study aims at evidencing the highly scientific nature of the research developed. The choice of the communicative methodology represents a promising approach to successfully find answers to the research questions outlined in the beginning and which respond to a major social need

in Spain as well as abroad. In line with this methodology, a solid scientific foundation is the basis for the research and provides a strong theoretical background for the research conducted. Moreover, strong and adequate data collection techniques are used in order to achieve a maximum of social transformation and contribute to preventing gender violence in Spanish higher education institutions. This is further underlined through the combination of different sources and voices which guarantees the triangulation of the results.

Additionally, the data is put into a comparison with international scientific knowledge and is intersubjectively interpreted by the researcher and the participants and therefore it is possible to provide excellent data and contribute with new knowledge to the scientific community. Also, in line with international high-ranked research standards, the present research complies with the international ethical standards and therewith further proves the scientific evidence that underlies the whole research process. Last but not least, the analytical framework that corresponds to the research questions provides the basis for the results obtained, but also counts with the final contributions of the participants who had suffered gender violence in university to present excellent results in the following section. Both the methodology chosen for the research conducted as well as the purpose of the research are lastly oriented to the transformation of the Spanish university context in order to make universities a safer place.