Analyzing and Interpreting Findings

Qualitative research begins with questions, and its ultimate purpose is learning. To inform the questions, the researcher collects data. Data are like building blocks that, when grouped into patterns, become information, which in turn, when applied or used, becomes knowledge (Rossman & Rallis, 2003). The challenge of qualitative analysis lies in making sense of large amounts of data—reducing raw data, identifying what is significant, and constructing a framework for communicating the essence of what the data reveal. This was the task of chapter 4. The challenge now becomes one of digging into the findings to develop some understanding of what lies beneath them; that is, what information we now have and what this really means. Analysis, in this sense, is about deconstructing the findings—an essentially postmodern concept. Your goal in conducting analysis is to figure out the deeper meaning of what you have found, and that analysis began when you assigned codes to chunks of raw data. Now that you have a well-laid-out set of findings, you go to a second level. You scrutinize what you have found in the hope of discovering what it means or, more precisely, what meaning you can make of it. You are seeking ways to understand what you have found by comparing your findings both within and across groups, and by comparing your study’s findings with those of other studies. In qualitative research, we are open to different ways of seeing the world. We make assumptions about how things work. We strive to be open to the reality of others and understand different realities. We must listen before we can understand. Analysis of the findings begins with careful listening to what others have to say. Begin by asking yourself: Given what I have found, what does this mean? What does this tell me about the phenomenon under study? What is really going on here? In asking these questions, you are working back and forth between the findings of your research and your own perspectives and understandings to make sense and meaning. Meaning can come from looking at differences and similarities, from inquiring into and interpreting causes, consequences, and relationships. Data analysis in qualitative research remains somewhat mysterious (Marshall & Rossman, 2006; Merriam, 1998). The problem lies in the fact that there are few agreed-on canons for qualitative analysis in the sense of shared ground rules. There are no formulas for determining the significance of findings or for interpreting them, and there are no ways of perfectly replicating a researcher’s analytical thinking. In this chapter, we do not purport to offer a recipe, but rather some guidance for navigating C H A P T E R