I Almost Named Quali Q "Sine Qua Non"...

Hello Qualitative Mind,

I don’t know if you’ve realized this but six months of this challenging, crazy year have passed! I have many feelings about 2020; I could write a full blog post about them. That’s not my intent for today, but I believe it’s important for all of us to stop, review goals for 2020, and reflect on the next steps!

As the title of the blog says, I almost named Quali Q “Sine Qua Non” and you might be reacting with a “What?” Well, the expression sine qua non is Latin and means '“an essential condition, without which it could not be.” While the last four blog posts covered essential areas of proposal writing, they brushed off qualitative data analysis because it’s one of those things that doesn’t take much “space” (or words) in a proposal. When you write your methods section for a qualitative proposal, it commonly includes no more than a few sentences about qualitative data analysis.

Even though qualitative data analysis isn’t the most essential piece when you are in the early stages of designing a qualitative research project, it’s important to choose an analytic approach that aligns with your overall method and, most importantly, strive for concurrent data collections and analysis. Collecting and analyzing data at the same time (i.e., concurrently) means so much more than a data validity strategy. It pushes the researcher to engage in reflexivity, to conduct future data collection in a way that is responsive to what participants have already said, and to improve qualitative research skills (and, as a result, the overall quality of the research being conducted).

Collecting and analyzing data {concurrently} means so much more than a data validity strategy.

This past April, I delivered the Qualitative Data Analysis Masterclass workshop. During the workshop, I discussed content analysis, thematic analysis, and constant comparison as well as strategies and mindset hacks that are key to any approach to qualitative data analysis. The workshop content was super well received, and one of the topics related to developing an analytic plan. If you’ve seen me teaching, you know I’m practical and down to earth (especially when presenting ideal vs. real). I know many students, academics, and research teams aren’t able to collect and analyze qualitative data concurrently. Sometimes this is due to an underlying lack of training and/or knowledge yet, most often, it is due to the lack of sufficient human resources (i.e., people) to keep all the pieces of a qualitative project moving along as they ideally should.

Knowing that the ideal doesn’t always (if ever) match reality, I offered a few strategies that could be used for data analysis...especially if not keeping up with data collection. The goal is to encourage you to avoid saying (or hearing someone in your team say), “We finished data collection and now have to think about analyzing the transcripts (and all other data sources) we have.” One of the strategies is simple: listen to the audio recording or re-visit collected data before the next interview, focus group, community meeting, direct observation, etc. Despite the simplicity of this strategy, it can spark reflexivity, foster data familiarity, and encourage timely changes (when needed).

What data analysis plan do you have in place? What strategies are you planning to collect and analyze data concurrently?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions or feel lost in a sea of transcripts and other data you already have, I’ve got something for you! The content presented in the Qualitative Data Analysis Masterclass back in April was improved, divided into bite-sized lessons, recorded, and is now available as an online mini course! You can move through the lessons at your own pace, complete the exercises, and ask as many questions as you need through e-mail or our private Facebook Group. More information about the content, delivery, and cost is available here.

Big News

The Qualitative Data Analysis Masterclass is now available as an online mini course!

This is very exciting for us here at Quali Q! I want to take this opportunity to thank Jess (my amazing virtual team member) for all her assistance in setting up the mini-course! She and I look forward to assisting you as you learn inside one of our Quali Q Programs!

Talk soon,

Maira Quintanilha