Qualitative data analysis

Raw qualitative data is a collection of constructions that are built by data collection methods and are reconstructed by data analysis process (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In interpretive research, which is qualitative in nature, researchers make personal descriptions and assessments that fit the issue under investigation taking the context of the study and theoretical perspective into consideration, bringing the researchers’ own perspectives to the interpretation (Creswell, 2012, p.238). Given the nature of this exploratory study guided by the sociocultural theory as its theoretical framework, thematic analysis is employed as the strategy of data analysis to analyse observation and interview data together. However, many theoretical aspects and analytical considerations need to be taken into account and made clear when using thematic analysis with sociocultural theory, as will be explained later in this section.

Thematic analysis is used in this study as “a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data” (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.79). It is used to organise and describe data in rich detail. Many authors consider thematic analysis as a tool that can be used across different major analytical frameworks, such as grounded theory and sociocultural theory, to identify and locate themes within these frameworks (Boyatzis, 1998: Ryan & Bernard, 2000, cited in Braun & Clarke, 2006). I employed thematic analysis because it is a flexible means of analysis that allows for summarising of key features of the large amount of data and provides thick descriptions of it. It can also generate unanticipated insights and findings through the deep investigation of the issue. In addition, thematic analysis allows the consideration of social and personal aspects when interpreting data (Creswell, 2012, p.97). However, it is difficult to demarcate thematic analysis strategies or name its steps clearly. Therefore,

Braun and Clarke (2006, p.93) recommend researchers to look at published examples that used similar versions of thematic analysis. In this study, several models of thematic analysis (e.g. Braun & Clarke, 2006; Creswell, 2012) and several published papers that used the same theoretical framework and analytical strategies were reviewed before conducting the analysis.

Thematic analysis is not a strategy of analysis that is wedded to a specific theoretical framework. It is actually a tool that can be used within different theoretical frameworks, such as grounded theory and sociocultural theory, offering researchers the opportunity to do many different things within them, as Braun and Clarke (2006) argue:

Thematic analysis can be an essentialist or realist method, which reports experiences, meanings and the reality of participants, or it can be a constructionist method, which examines the ways in which events, realities, meanings, experiences and so on are the effects of a range of discourses operating within society. It can also be a ‘contextualist’ method, sitting between the two poles of essentialism and constructionism, and characterized by theories, such as critical realism (eg, Willig, 1999), which acknowledge the ways individuals make meaning of their experience, and, in turn, the ways the broader social context impinges on those meanings, while retaining focus on the material and other limits of ‘reality’. (p. 81)

In this study, sociocultural theory (in addition to theories or concepts used under its umbrella such as identity, agency, affordances and the theory of planned behaviour) is used as the theoretical framework that guides the research process, carrying with it many theoretical aspects about the nature of knowledge that is produced from data and guides the research focus on data. Taking this theoretical stance into account, I attempted to make my theoretical position when conducting thematic analysis as clear as possible by organising the data according to the theoretical framework. Nevertheless, this approach also allowed the flexibility of thematic analysis to bring in the participants’ voices without being strictly driven by theory. As this study holds to a constructionist

perspective, meanings are deemed to be socially constructed. Therefore, through the use of a thematic analysis strategy, I attempt to theorise the use of technology in the classroom by the pre-service teachers in the light of the sociocultural context rather than focusing on individual psychology (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.85). Through the use of thematic analysis within the sociocultural framework, I seek to strengthen this analytical strategy as the use of thematic analysis without any existing framework might limit its interpretive power and make the focus on data too broad. This is supported by Braun and Clarke’s (2006, p.97) claim that “thematic analysis has limited interpretative power beyond mere description if it is not used within an existing theoretical framework that anchors the analytic claims that are made”. I believe that using thematic analysis within the sociocultural framework allows me to focus on the social construction of the pre-service teachers’ use of technology in the classroom, driving my data analysis toward the focus of the study and providing answers for my research questions.

In a basic thematic analysis that is not driven by a theory, patterns (themes) within a set of data are identified ‘inductively’ linking them to data and allowing data to speak about itself without a pre-existing framework (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.83). In contrast, studies can adopt fixed theoretical thematic analysis, which is strictly guided by theories where themes are pre-determined ‘deductively’ based on the theoretical framework. This theoretical thematic analysis tends to negatively affect the richness of data description in general (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.83). In the current study, in order to avoid both the limitations of theoretical thematic analysis and obtain the advantages of theory as a powerful tool to conduct research, open thematic analysis was conducted to code data inductively without fitting it into a pre-determined frame. However,

the principles of sociocultural theory were considered and kept in mind during the data analysis process which provided the opportunity for the data to speak about itself yet keeping the study in its right theoretical direction at the same time. This was ensured previously by designing the interview questions according to the sociocultural focus and taking the power of social context in influencing the pre-service teachers’ practice into consideration. It is worth mentioning that theory is used more explicitly later in the discussion chapter in order to interpret the findings and their meanings in the light of the study theoretical framework.

Miles and Huberman (1994) discuss this strategy as a thematic analysis strategy that lies between the inductive approach, where themes emerge from data, and the deductive approach, where themes are pre-determined. They argue that, in this strategy, according to the theoretical framework of the study, main categories are pre-determined, or at least pre-recognised by the researcher, while sub-categories are developed inductively. In the current study, the theoretical framework has driven its focus and framed its methods of data collection. However, when analysing data, the influence of the theoretical framework was implicit and limited to organising the focus of the research instruments and the researcher’s thoughts and ideas during data analysis. As explained earlier, the theoretical framework is used mainly to design the study in its earlier stages and interpret its findings later in the discussion.