Finding categories and themes

The stages adopted to analyse the focus group data and the data from the semi-structured interviews are described below.

Step 1

The recordings from the focus groups were listened to one at a time prior to reading each transcript. The transcripts were read as soon as possible to recall the ‘emotional tone’ of the discussion and obtain a general sense of the data (Hennessy and Heary, 2005)

Step 2

Following several readings of the transcripts, a preliminary, exploratory analysis was undertaken as suggested by Creswell (2005). Text segments from each group were coded semantically, that is themes were identified by the surface meaning of the text. Code labels were assigned to these text segments. Pupil responses were grouped into the predominant themes in relation to each of the ten questions posed to the pupil focus group. The questions presented to the pupils in the focus group are provided in the focus group schedule (Appendix L) Re-occurring themes were identified and major emerging themes were identified and summarised across all four data sets. The focus of the analysis was based on the ten questions asked in the focus groups and the data was organised by questions asked in the focus groups to explore the responses across all pupils in the focus groups. The reason this was done was firstly to explore how the pupils in the four groups responded to each question. The second justification for focusing the analysis by questions was to identify any consistencies and differences across all the pupils’ responses to the questions (Krueger, 1994; Taylor-Powell and Renner, 2003).

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Responses to the questions were sorted into categories that were organised by codes to describe the meaning of the text segments. Codes were generated for the transcript of each focus group one at a time. The responses to each question were coded to generate a composite list for the focus group: the pupil response text was then read and read line by line and key words and phrases were noted/coded verbatim (using in vivo codes) to identify words and phrases This process was undertaken manually by underlining and highlighting interesting features of the data for each question posed in each focus group. The initial long list produced for each group was then studied again to check for repetitions and similarities. The data was codes inclusively and care take to include a little of the surrounding data to ensure that the context is retained (Bryan, 2001). This process led to a reduction of the code list for each focus group transcript. This process was repeated systematically each of the four focus groups. The code lists for all four focus groups were then studied again as a complete data set to check the data relevant to each code. Codes within the code list were organised into categories. The pupil response text was then read and read line by line and key words and phrases were noted/coded verbatim (using in vivo codes) to identify words and phrases which could form the basis of repeated patterns (themes) for each question posed to the focus group across the data sets. Figures 2 and 3 (Appendix N and O respectively) illustrate the codes and accompanying major themes from focus group data from Schools Aand B.

Step 4

1. Each focus group code list was re-examined to check for repetitions and any overlapping codes to ensure completeness of the data set.

2. Clustering text segments illustrating a similar point of view under a code. In other words collapsing codes into broad themes

3. All segments of the data were coded once or coded many times as relevant to the codes. All the data was coded in an inclusive and comprehensive process. The data segments were given a code.

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4. The long list of codes consisted of 115 codes across the full data set.

Following review of repetitions and overlap of codes this number was reduced 36 codes across the full data set. This reduced list was then studied to identify themes across the whole data set.

5. Specific quotes were highlighted which supported the codes.

Once the data had been sorted in this way, the collated different codes were then grouped according to common features to identify potential themes. For this step of the analysis another tabulated matrix of a number of themes for each category was created. For each key theme text segments which best illustrated the theme was also noted on a matrix. (Appendix N and O).This process was repeated for all four data sets. At this stage there were four matrices for the different data sets: two from each school.

Step 5

The matrices for the four focus groups for School A and School B were used to identify frequently occurring themes across the two intervention classes across each school. The frequently occurring themes were mapped onto a master matrix for each school (Appendix P).

Step 6

Finally the four data sets for the two schools was merged as one data set to create a master matrix for the whole data set from the focus groups from both schools (Appendix P). The analysis of the data identified 16 sub-themes and 5 main themes. The next section provides the findings from the analysis of the focus group data.

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