Steps in Using Atlas.ti

The first step in analysing data using Atlas.ti is described as managing the data (Muhr, 1997b). This involved entering data into the computer programme. The second step was guided by two principle modes, the textual

level and conceptual level. The textual level included the segmentation of data

files, coding text and writing memos. The conceptual level focused on framework-building activities such as linking codes, concepts and categories to form theoretical networks. This special feature of Atlas.ti, provides a comprehensive overview of the researcher’s work as well as rapid search, retrieval and browsing functions. Below, is a detailed description of the textual and conceptual level work that took place in the present study.

4.8.3.1. Textual Level Work

a) Creating a Hermeneutic Unit

Textual level work involved creating three Hermeneutic Units (HU) (each H U being an idea ‘container’); one to contain transcripts from physically

disabled young people, one for focus groups and the last one for key informants. Initially transcripts had been stored as Word documents and later converted into ‘plain text format’ prior to entering the information into Atlas.ti. This is because the 4.2 version of Atlas.ti does not read word- processed documents. It can only handle documents in ‘rich text format’ (Muhr, 1997b). Common themes and categories that were generated from each HU were later merged manually in the writing-up process.

b) Assigning Primary Documents

In Atlas.ti, field notes or raw data are referred to as Primary Documents (PU). Raw data or transcripts were imported into the computer programme one at a time, a process known as ‘assigning Primary Documents’ into a Hermeneutic Unit. Each of the three Hermeneutic Units stored the raw data including codes, memos and network structures for each group. However, each Primary Document maintained the capacity to be analysed or coded separately within the Hermeneutic Unit.

c) Discovering relevant passages

Text passages were then read while examining the meaning in order to identify concepts and segments, which were interesting and relevant in answering the research questions. Relevant passages or quotations were noted and segmented in small paragraph form in preparation for the coding and memo-writing steps described below.

d) Creating codes and memos

Coding refers to naming and categorising phenomena through close examination of the data (Henning et al, 2004). Henning et al (2004) state that open coding actually fractures the data into concepts and categories. While Strauss and Cobin (1990:57) state that coding “represents the operations by which data are broken down, conceptualised and put back together in new ways; it is the central way by which theories are built from data”.

In Atlas.ti, initial ideas often find expression through their assignment to a code or memo, to which similar ideas or text sections also become assigned. The codes in Atlas.ti can be one word or a phrase that is used to assign meaning to sections of the text or quotations. For each relevant or significant section in the text, an appropriate code was assigned. The codes were then grouped into meaningful clusters or categories in the conceptual level phase.

Memos are a place for the researcher to write his/her thoughts concerning emerging theories. In the current study, I wrote memos to most single word codes, as these reminded me of particular hunches during the conceptual level of the analysis.

4.8.3.2. Conceptual Level Work

v) Visualising and writing up reports

Beyond coding and retrieval, Atlas.ti’s network feature allows the researcher to visually “connect” selected passages, memos and codes into diagrams, which graphically outline complex relations. Muhr (1997a) states that in Atlas.ti networks are a graphical tool for constructing theoretical models. This is a graphical way of viewing and relating the various parts of the Hermeneutic Unit. Networks are a cornerstone of the emerging theory or the conceptual working phase.

vi) Building theory; weaving concepts to network

This process of network building is an integral part of the analysis, which lays the conceptual foundations upon which interpretations and explanations are based, those that make action meaningful to others (Dey, 1993). At this level, codes that carried the same meaning, cause and effect or other relationships were linked together to form categories. Such classification was done for a purpose, guided by the research objectives. Once data were classified, regularities, variations and peculiarities were examined and patterns were identified. Then relations between different categories were studied and a picture of the data created; this picture was complex but clearer than the initial impressions (see tables 1 and 2).

The aim of the current study was to understand the relationship between sexuality and HIV/AIDS in the context of disability, and thus contribute towards a theory, as detailed in section 8.2. Tables 1 and 2 below represent a summary of the main themes and sub themes that were generated using the Atlas.ti network-building exercise.

Table 1 is a summary of the two main themes discussed in detail in Chapter 5. The first theme demonstrates that disabled young people’s experiences and perceptions of growing up are determined by cultural and religious beliefs about causes of disability. Such beliefs lead to discrimination, acceptance and ambivalent attitudes towards disabled young people, which force this group to adopt fluctuating identities, which in turn increase their vulnerability to risk. The second theme shows that socio-economic factors of Nyanga are characterised by poverty and limited access to social services such as education and recreation by disabled young people, which increases their vulnerability to abuse and contracting infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Table 1: Experiences of growing up with a disability

Themes Sub themes Consequences

1 Beliefs about causes of disability • Discrimination • Acceptance • Ambivalence • Disabled identity • Non-disabled identity • Fluctuating identity/confusion 2 Social economic factors • Limited educational opportunities at special and mainstream schools • Limited training,

employment, transport, recreational facilities and health care

• Increase vulnerability to further discrimination, abuse and contracting infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS        

Table 2: Experiences of sexuality and HIV/AIDS

Themes Sub themes Consequences

1 Cultural and religious beliefs/scripts about sexuality (tradition)

• Rite of passage (discrimination)

• The church

• Prohibitions against sexual and marriage relationships

• Gender differences/ discrimination.

2 Risk factors for HIV/AIDS (disabled asexuality)

• Multiple sexual partners • Unfaithfulness • Financial exploitation

• Sexual abuse/rape

• Alcohol and drug abuse

• Increased vulnerability to contracting HIV infection

3 Response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic (information) • Factual knowledge • Sources of information • HIV/AIDS services in Nyanga

• Access to sexual and reproductive health services and care

• Disabled have limited information and are misinformed.

• Believed to be asexual, yet contraceptives are imposed on them, also targeted for rape 4 Perception of the

threat of HIV/AIDS

• Threatened • Unthreatened • Fatalistic attitude

• Not motivated to protect themselves, AIDS is like any accident

Table 2 is a summary of the four main themes discussed in detail in Chapter 6. The first theme illustrates that disabled young people’s experiences of sexuality are also determined by cultural and religious beliefs. These are manifested through the rite passage, and restrictions to sexual expression, that are characterised by gender discrimination. The second theme shows that a combination of cultural scripts and poverty lead to several risk factors for contracting HIV infection. The third theme points to individual and contextual responses to the pandemic that are characterised by limited information, misinformation and lack HIV services in Nyanga. This theme also reveals a paradox of disabled asexuality, in the face of this group being a target for sexual abuse and imposed contraceptives. The fourth theme

describes another paradox of risk, in that disabled young people who feel threatened by HIV/AIDS and those who do not feel threatened, all have not heeded to prevention efforts to protect themselves from contracting HIV infection