As discussed earlier in relation to the theoretical underpinnings of the fieldwork research, a range of tentative notions about the nature and contextual genesis of social work practice knowledge are developed within the first three chapters of this thesis. Inevitably, this theoretical orientation is likely to influence what is ‘seen’ within the data sets. However, I also took some pains to avoid what has been termed a ‘shoe-horning’ approach to the generation and analysis of data (Rafalin, 2010). Although the questions explained above are designed to potentially develop these formative notions, they are also couched in a way that seeks to access the original views of practitioners - to allow for new or contradictory ideas to emerge and for unforeseen connections to be made. Similarly with the process of thematic analysis, I adopted a grounded theory approach, at least in part, to the disaggregation and reassembly of the interview data. First and foremost, I endeavoured to identify themes as they presented ‘within’ the data generated from participant interviews, developing findings from the ‘ground-up’ rather than imposing a pre-ordained structure. The question design sought to balance theory testing with theory development. In order to further this approach I consciously made an effort to set the questions aside during the process of analysis so as to allow the information which the questions had facilitated to generate its own patterns.
All of the interviews were recorded and carefully transcribed by an experienced third party contracted for this purpose. This arrangement included the signing of a confidentiality agreement as indicated under the earlier sub-heading 3.3.3: ‘Ethical Procedures’. As noted, participants were given the opportunity to peruse and amend, or otherwise comment, on their manuscripts. I took a deliberately cautious approach to
analysis of the interview manuscripts. As much as possible, I wanted to suspend my own propensity for prejudgement. I closely read each manuscript through twice without highlighting particular pieces of text in order to get a broad feel for the data I would be working with. I then began the task of discerning common threads within the data in relation to the key points of enquiry - the existence / nature of social work practice knowledge and the impact which the context within which it is generated may have for the ‘form’ of this knowledge. I experienced this process as engaged and thought- provoking and also as both disciplined and creative. Care was taken to facilitate the emergence of patterns within the data set rather than impose categorisations. At first, data which appeared potentially insightful, suggestive of wider relevance, or merely ‘interesting’ in some way, was provisionally identified in each of the transcripts. Although I was conscious of attending to points of commonality, I was also interested in divergence and originality. I simply highlighted sentences or paragraphs / part paragraphs (sometimes short phrases or key words) in each transcript by using the electronic word document ‘review function’ and inserted margin comments tentatively expressing or querying how these pieces of data might potentially be relevant to the thesis. These comments then became the mechanism for collating the discrete ‘bites’ identified. I was conscious of my own preconceptions about which interviews might contain more ‘productive’ information and aware that an early focus on particular transcripts risked the premature imposition of a particular order on the interview data. Accordingly I worked through the transcripts in the random order in which they were stored in the electronic ‘word’ folder I had created for the interview material.
Patterns within the data inevitably began to recur as the analysis progressed and ‘identifying phrases’ relevant to possible themes began to be repeated as I continued to highlight material and insert margin comments. The process of identifying meaningful data and assigning tentative thematic headings - interrogating the text/s and tentatively building analytical categories in relation to recurrent patterns - occurred simultaneously, or ‘recursively’ (Bryman, 2012). I remained mindful that potentially important associations could be overlooked if data was prematurely placed in tight categories. The following are two random examples of the form of margin notes made at this point in the process:
‘Respect’ connected to treat others as you would like to be treated; discussion. Example of flexible approach to client engagement / idea of ‘guiding’ intention to engage in empowering practice - comment re client socio-economic status.
Some of these margin comments merely suggested possible categories while others highlighted particular nuances which could be connected with possible categories. The process could be well described as both engaged and reflective - actively performing the task of emergent codification and simultaneously thinking about the potential patterns across developing themes. Although this activity proceeded organically in the sense that making possible connections between tentative themes (and ‘back to’ the theoretical body of the thesis) were inevitably part of cognitive process, I was careful not to get ‘too far ahead of myself’ - to ‘hold lightly’ to emerging associations so as to ‘allow’ the concertina effect of this analytical process to unfold and retract. Once all the transcripts had been processed in this way, I began a gradual and methodical process of data reduction - thematic identification and consolidation.
This ‘filtering down’ and reordering of relevant data was carried out carefully and deliberately. This stage in the process is consistent with the concept of open coding where categories remain generative and flexible to some degree. I re-read through all of the ‘processed’ transcripts several times with an eye to apparent patterns and connections. I then began to electronically ‘copy and paste’ highlighted sentences / paragraphs, complete with margin comments and provisionally group these excerpts under tentative thematic headings. I was aware that applying this method in an overly hasty or prescriptive way might compromise the integrity of the inductive approach being applied and also potentially overlook important information within the data set.55 The transcript data was reassembled broadly and flexibly at this point, although I was also mindful of retaining (and noting as necessary) the contextual meaning of discrete pieces of text taken from the interview transcripts. Approximately twenty provisional thematic categories were created during this initial ‘coding’ process.
I was cautious of imposing structure on the material too definitively as I did not want to ‘close down’ interpretations of the data, or of possible associations between ideas expressed within the data. Accordingly, the thematic headings generally contained several words or phrases, indicating related, but differing, emphases. Data was also often ‘positioned’ under more than one heading at this stage. The following example indicates something of the flavour of this process. One such tentative thematic category was entitled, ‘Influence of Politics / Economics / Wider Social Awareness’. Some of the data provisionally collected under this category was also included under an overlapping heading: ‘Client characteristics / Poverty / Structural Inequality’. The connections and over-laps between the named categories were also
55
Although I am not claiming that this research is anchored in grounded theory, this approach did influence this process of data assembly as prefigured in the earlier discussion of Oliver’s (2012) work.
often complex, subtle and uncertain. This was not unexpected. Differing levels of analytical abstraction are involved and as has been suggested, the process being scrutinised - the application and development of practice knowledge - is often experienced and understood as ‘organic’ in nature.
This provisional organisation of complex and nuanced data provided a platform for a further engaged process of categorisation and thematic refinement. I was able to carefully and systematically review the thematic categories and ponder the associations between them. Several of the data categories originally created were consequently amalgamated, renamed and / or reconfigured as sub-themes within broader categories. This process is akin to the concept of axial coding: merging initial ‘related’ codes within ‘higher order’ categories (Bryman, 2012, p. 577). In the final arrangement of data, six over-arching themes were identified. Several of the concepts which were common to more than one of the open coding categories discussed above were amalgamated into larger thematic headings as follows: Relational Engagement, Self in Context, Enabling / Advocating, Locus of Practice, Humanising Practice and lastly Political and Economic Influences. Less frequent or discrete data categories were organised as sub-themes (related sub-sets of data) beneath these ‘master themes’. The individual interview data is arranged and discussed under these themes and sub-themes in chapters 4 and 5. I have chosen to reproduce a significant amount of interview transcript data in the following chapters so as to allow the voice of practice experience to be directly heard. This dialogue is also intentionally presented in verbatim form, although I have punctuated the excerpts minimally to enhance comprehension.56 Although grammatical errors arise in the direct translation to written text, I refrained from editing this material so as to preserve its authenticity. However, I have removed statements that might potentially threaten the anonymity of participants. This is indicated in the text of the interview data as required.