Interview Analysis – Approach Three

The third approach to analysis for this research was the examination of the six semi- structured interviews. The aim was to extract the key themes from the interviews that allowed a greater understanding of the social relationships, interactions and uses of Facebook by the research participants before, during and after studying the FSP course.

The analysis method used an approach called thematic coding. This approach generates key themes and ensures that the outcomes are generated and supported by the data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). By using this method the aim was to identify themes from the interview responses and observations that assist in answering the research questions (Miles & Huberman 1994). It is important that the themes obtained are driven by the data and so this method is also seen as a way to overcome any pre-conceived biases and assumptions that can commonly be brought into the analysis process by the researcher (Strauss & Corbin 1990).

In order to prepare for this stage of analysis, the interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed. Additional unrecorded details and observational notes were also written and added to the transcriptions as needed. This process involved listening to each recorded interview in turn and typing out the interview for each research participant. At completion, the interviews were read and checked and any necessary changes were made before the formal analysis process began.

The codes from this analysis technique were brief descriptions, or themes, generated from the underlying meaning that were extracted from the interviews (Strauss, 1987). Thematic coding is an iterative process that involves repeating a series of steps until a

Page | 81 final list of themes are obtained from the interview data. The process involves examining the interview transcripts sentence by sentence and or paragraph by paragraph and summarizing the key ideas that exist. For this process a sentence level analysis was used where the key ideas from each sentence(s) response by the interviewee was identified and recorded. Each sentence may have had more than one key. These key ideas formed the necessary ‘codes’ that were identified, compared and condensed during each iteration of the analysis process.

Each step created a series of codes which were then grouped together to form broader themes that were then compared back to the interview transcript and notes for confirmation (Boyatzis 1998). The process repeated until it could not be undertaken any further and the end results were a number of distinct ideas or themes. It is the final list of themes that were then interpreted in relation to the aims of the research.

Table 3.4 located on the next page is an example of the first stage of the thematic coding process. This process involves generating summary codes from the interview transcript and repeating this process until the codes could not be summarized any further. In the example interview extract below: 1.) identifies the first sentence and the four iterations of the analysis. The first iteration provides a summary of the meaning of the sentence. The following three Iterations further condense and summarise the meaning until the final code associated with that sentence is ‘Initial Expectations’. This is the researcher’s interpretation of the meaning of the first sentence. The process then continued for the remainder of the paragraph. While 2.) followed a similar process, separate meaning was extracted from the sentences proceeding 3.) and 4.).

This process was undertaken using the transcripts from all six undertaken interviews. Once this first stage of analysis was complete, stage two began.

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TRANSCRIPT ITERATION 1 ITERATION 2 ITERATION 3 ITERATION 4

1.) Initial expectations were that the FSP course would be difficult and time consuming to undertake.

Student expectations related to their proposed course of study

Initial expectations related to the environment in which they will study

Initial expectations

Ok, so how did you find the Foundation program? Did it meet your expectations?

2.) The participant's 1st priority is their study.

Student has priorities for

doing the course of study Educational Priorities

1.)Yeah, more than that because I thought it would be hard and it would take all my time and I wouldn’t have friends, 2.) I would just study and study and study for the whole night but then 3.) 4.) I found that I could study and make friends and I work in a group. I didn’t used to work in a groups, in Foundation it was my first time working in groups, I always work individually.

3.) The participant showed a desire and ability for social interactions with the other participants

Participant wanted to be

social with others Social confidence

4.) The group work aspects were a new experience that allowed social interactions with other students to occur

Opportunities to interact with other students were present

Education based social opportunities

Page | 83 In the second stage, the list of codes that were generated from the analysis of all six interviews was grouped together in a further iterative process. This process involved removing the boundary associated with each individual interview by grouping the created codes together in order to generate a list of unique sub-themes. The aim of the thematic coding stages was to take the large number of codes that had initially been produced and to continuously condense those codes down into the key themes (Boyatzis 1998). The example in Table 3.5 provides an example of this process that included further condensing the generated codes. In the example below, the four codes generated from stage one are further grouped into sub-codes. A justification is listed in relation to the consideration and reason for the grouping, for example, Initial Expectations are grouped into the Social Environment sub-theme as the initial expectations related to the social expectations and opportunities of the study environment.

The example below also contains brief justifications, based on the researcher’s interpretative analysis, for the grouping of the codes. The highlighted (bold) initial codes continue on from the example located above in Table 3.4.

Initial Codes Justification of linkage Sub-Themes

Initial expectations Expectations relating to the social

environment that they will experience Social environment

Educational priorities

Educational outcomes were a priority

and main reason for study Motivation and focus

Social confidence

A person with social confidence has greater opportunities to socially interact

Social opportunities

Educational based social opportunities

The social opportunities that were afforded by the educational environment

Social opportunities

New social experiences

The participant had a social

experience Social experience

Educational benefits

The participant had particular needs related to their educational

undertaking

Educational needs

Positive educational experience

Part of the educational experience had by the participant was the social experience

Social experience

Social benefits A benefit of having social connections

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Educational development

Their educational development is part

of the participants focus for study Motivation and focus

Table 3.5 Second Stage Coding Example

At each stage codes are condensed and combined with other codes, grouped under a broader code or discarded as not being relevant to aims of the research. The final codes formed the key themes that went toward answering the research questions (Miles & Huberman, 1994). By following this process, the final list of themes were generated and grounded in the data. This process also minimizes the preconceived biases and assumptions that the researcher could have brought into the analysis process if just analysing the interviews at the surface level (Strauss & Corbin 1990). Table 3.6 provides an example of the leading to the final stage of the thematic coding process.

Sub-Theme Justification of linkage Final Theme

Social environment

The social aspects of the environment influenced the participant

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES Motivation and focus

These are influenced by the environment and in turn influence the environment

Social opportunities

These come from the environment the participant is in

Social experience Is provided by the

environment

Educational needs

Need for support and social interaction come from the environment

Social support Support from others comes

from the environment

Table 3.6 Final Theme Example