Qualitative Methods

Analyzing Qualitative Data

Developing and Validating Interpretations

fter themes and patterns in the data have been identified and conceptual schemes have been developed, it is time to begin constructing an intrepretation of the data. This is where the researcher articulates the connections within the data and chooses excerpts from the data as illustrative examples. Sometimes these interpretations are called "memoing" as they are the memos that a researcher will weave amongst the data. Memos are conceptual notes that tie together various data excerpts into a coherent and cohesive narrative. These comments are where researchers makes their intrepretive framework clear to the reader. Data do not intrepret themselves--rather they are presented within a conceptual structure of the researcher's design.

Writing these memos of linkages and connections provides the reader with a clear descriptions of how the researcher is thinking about the data. This final component of analysis is an insightful, interpretive exercise by which you will become more aware of how you are thinking about your data. In this process, your assumptions and understandings are made more overt. Such conceptual clarity and honesty by a researcher is part of the next process, that of deciding whether your interpretation and analytic description is a valid one that is supported by the data.

Validating Your Analysis

Due to the "up close and personal" manner in which qualitative data is gathered, many proponents believe that this closeness gives qualitative research stronger validity than more distant methods. Studying settings, interactions and individuals as they unfold provides the researcher with greater indepth familiarity and thus, a greater possibility of coming to valid conclusions about those settings, interactions and individuals. Where large scale surveys may be more appropriate (and valid) for an understanding of the frequency of poverty, they would be much less valid for studying the meaning of poverty to those citizens with limited resources. Indeed, a qualitative approach is ideal for understanding the meanings individuals develop and use within their everyday lives.

How do you know that your interpretation is valid?

The final task to complete your analysis is to validate your interpretation. You need to be sure that you haven't ‘discovered' in your data only what you wanted to see. Moreover, it is important to know that your interpretation is actually supported by your data. Qualitative researchers use three processes for validating interpretations.