with great power (mullooly)

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility:

Teaching the benefits of qualitative software while maintaining an inductive approach

to the analysis of data

James Mullooly, PhDCalifornia State University, Fresno

With the helpful assistance of Michelle C. Bligh, Ph.D.

Who authored several of the slides used here

Warning

• This was designed for a presentation lead by the author.

• Therefore,– This information is copyrighted

• If you use it, cite it

– The information is partial• If you don’t get something email me at

[email protected]

What is grounded theory?

• Grounded theory: development of a theoretical explanation for behavior based on the analysis of data; this approach differs from the traditional deductive derivation of a hypothesis; grounded theory is used most often to generate explanations for behavior observed in qualitative investigations (http://srmdc.net/glossary.htm#g)

• Grounded Theory (GT) a systematic research methodology in the social sciences developed by the sociologists Glaser and Strauss emphasizing generation of theory from data.

• According to Kelle (2005), "the controversy between Glaser and Strauss boils down to the question whether the researcher uses a well defined "coding paradigm" and always looks systematically for "causal conditions," "phenomena/context, intervening conditions, action strategies" and "consequences" in the data,

• or whether theoretical codes are employed as they emerge in the same way as substantive codes emerge, but drawing on a huge fund of "coding families.“ (wikipedia.)

A CONVERSATION ABOUT CODING IN ETHNOGRAPHY

([email protected]) From: 9/3/03 through 9/9/03• Herve Varenne • Janise Hurtig • Mica Pollock• James Mullooly• Ken Jacobson• Jon Wagner• Frederick Erickson• Joe Maxwell• Kevin Foster

• Consensus: These software programs are dangerous because they encourage one to “code too soon”.

Valuable but Dangerous

• Benefits – Miles and Huberman (1994) and others

preach the benefits

• (Potential) Dangers of “data reduction” software – Losing the natural “iterative” process of

reading and rereading one’s notes– Coding too soon

• Resulting in “codes in search of a theory” – A decidedly un-inductive approach

That’s Uranium

Deductive and Inductive Approaches

• Deductive Approaches– Hypothesis

Analysis• from general to specific

• Inductive Approaches– Analysis Hypothesis

• from specific to general

sherlock holmes

margaret mead

What is the Solution?

• Throw it out and disregard the ability to:– organize hundreds of pages

of notes taken by many researchers,

– find something in your notes, – detect correlations you had

previously not noticed.

• Or Use it More Responsibly

“With great power comes great responsibility”

• How can one use these software packages yet maintain an inductive approach to the generation of data?

• The challenge– To use this technology yet

thwart the natural tendency to take the easy (deductive) way out.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May

How have I done this?

• Undergraduate anthropology students of ethnographic methods– using N6 and Atlas/ti

• Free downloads on line (but cannot save)• Coding (indexing) was more easily achieved when

using Atlas/ti– Consequently, Atlas/ti is likely the more dangerous program

• ILLUSTRATION FROM:– “Defensive Posturing and Group Maintenance in

Ethnographic Relief: Fights for Freedom in Post-911 America” (Visser and Campos, 2005)

HU: Peace To You File: [c:\program files\scientific software\atlasti\textbank\Peace To You]

Edited by: SuperDate/Time: 2005/03/23 - 10:04:39

All (28) quotations from primary text: P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt (C:\Program Files\Scientific Software\ATLASti\TEXTBANK\VisserCampos011605a.txt)

P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt - 2:17 (76:86) (Super)• Media: ANSI Codes: [Roles]

– Roles MR- leader wise owl ST- contact guy worker TH- D- odd ball N- Controller/adimate Fr- DA- nudist Ka SE Je-

• P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt - 2:18 (87:88) (Super)• Media: ANSI Codes: [group] [membership]

– ** floating membership come and go as you please

• P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt - 2:19 (90:91) (Super)• Media: ANSI Codes: [description]

– banner- videotape to cover and serve as evidence which in past protests have been used against them by the police


– Recruiting styles-MR (Fahrenheit 9/11) said that as a response to their recruiting styles that they should have someone follow in the recruiters to high schools basically telling students after they talked to the recruiter that that was not their only option and show them scholarships etc.


– Affinity group== group of people who agree to carry out some sort of action and work together in the event that one or more of its members are arrested. Inside the prison their goal is to slow the process of their arrest by not speaking at all to the police and some even to their lawyer.

• P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt - 2:25 (118:119) (Super)• Media: ANSI Codes: [fears]

– Th said that most convergence centers were most likely bugged and often that they only talk about this stuff on the street because they don’t want people to know

• P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt - 2:26 (121:125) (Super)• Media: ANSI Codes: [ideology]

– MR told Elizabeth- what’s really going to happen is that the group is volunteering to serve the homeless next to a big candle light dinner for the big wigs we are going to help with serving desserts and said that there’s more than that, there is a risk of people getting arrested and the police coming to slip everybody out because of the banner drop saying l’LET THEM EAT CAKE’ said they shouldn’t arrest everyone but that serving ties into being with the banner.

• P 2: VisserCampos011605a.txt - 2:27 (131:136) (Super)• Media: ANSI• Codes: [fears] [infiltration]

– Decoys/infiltration= every movement and protest has govt decoys they come in saying they are friends of other protestors friends not in attendance. People will call and say do you know this person, they don’t that’s how they find out they are bugged and there is a general suspicion always and people are even asked in various groups is that ( a member of the particular group) a cop?? General suspicion and fear – explains us being skunk eyed while the rest walk through with no problem- we are much more less carefree and less reserved.

Results of Coding

too Soon

www.atlasti.com

Coding (Bligh)

• Coding is analysis• Codes are tags or labels for assigning

units of meaning to the descriptive or inferential information compiled

• It is the meaning that matters• Codes are used to retrieve and organize

the chunks of information, so you can quickly find, pull out, and cluster the segments relating to a particular topic

Types of Codes (Miles & Huberman, 1994)

• Descriptive: attributing a class of phenomena to a segment of text (e.g., room description) [INDEXING]

• Interpretive: include a more complex, underlying meaning (e.g., roles)

• Pattern: inferential and explanatory; group codes into a smaller number of themes or constructs; analogous to factor analysis in statistics (e.g., ideology) [CODING]

THE PROBLEM:

Coding too

Soon

THE SOULTION:

Teach Iteration

and Annotation

prior to Codification

• REREADING NOTES (easier in a group, sharing notes with others)

Teach Iteration

and annotation

prior to codification

Teach Iteration

and

Annotation prior to

Codification

COMMENTS ON COMMENTS (“annote” reactions to something; your opinions of the reaction, reminders for next visit to field, etc.)

Classroom Exercise• Exercise: Students make

comments in the margins of the fieldnotes I distribute – then return to the author, – I note them in Altlas.ti’s comments

window– Semiotically analogous to rabbinic

discourse – (Washabaugh, personal

communication)• Handelman, S. 1982. The Slayers of

Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory, SUNY Press.

The Mishna and Talmud are surrounded by commentaries. In this way, discoursing rabbis are making "comments on comments“

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_Talmud)

Rabbi 1 Rabbi 2

commentaries and notes

commentaries on commentaries and notes

Mishna

Talmud

Where is Truth?

• In the Judaic Holy Book (between)

• In the Christian Holy Book? (within)

• In the U.S. Constitution? (between)

Conclusion: Why use this

technology at all?

• The critics make an important point about the dangers inherent in these programs– But “throwing the baby out with the

bathwater” may not be the only option

Use Common Sense

• We all have a common sense as Kuhn (1962), Kaplan (1964) argued initially and Garfinkel (2003) has been arguing all along– To ignore it, or worse, assume it does not

exist invites a variety of other dangers

Let’s not mourn the passing of Common Sense as they have here

Maintaining Analytic Induction• The use of systematic, highly

visible indexing is how I introduce students to these programs

• This will get them into the software quickly and motivate increased rereading on their notes (iteration)

– When indexed, fieldnotes become far more available and facilitate systematic iteration and annotation (i.e., analytic induction)

Maintaining Analytic Induction

• When (if) patterns emerge, the choice of using the more powerful aspects of these programs (e.g., pattern coding, conclusion drawing etc.) becomes the choice of the (now) vigilant analyst.

Uncle Ben

is watching

Postscript

• After a presentation with Russ Bernard, one of the leaders in Anthropological methods, his advice to me was:– Don’t worry about teaching “vigilance”– Rather, encourage iteration (returning to the data).

• Mistakes will be realized naturally and worked through in due course (personal communication).

Bernard, Russ. 1988 Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology . Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

References

• Garfinkel, H. (2003) Ethnomethodology's program Boulder, Co: Rowman & Littlefield.

• Kaplan, A. (1964) The conduct of inquiry. Scranton, Penn.: Chandler Publishing Company.

• Kuhn, T. (1970 [1962]) The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Miles M. B, & Huberman A. M (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis, Sage.

The VISE Principle (www.atlasti.com)

• Visualization– The visualization component of the program means directly supports the way

human beings (this includes researchers!) think, plan, and approach solutions in creative, yet systematic ways.

• Integration– Another fundamental design aspect of the software is to integrate all pieces that

comprise a project, in order not to lose sight of the whole when going into detail. – Therefore, all relevant entities are stored in a container, the so-called

"Hermeneutic Unit (HU).” Like the spider in its web, the HU keeps all data within reach.

• Serendipity– The term "serendipity" can be equated with an intuitive approach to data.

• Exploration– Seriously, though: exploration is closely related to the above principles. Through

an exploratory, yet systematic approach to your data (as opposed to a mere "bureaucratic" handling), it is assumed that especially constructive activities like theory building will be of great benefit.

with great power (mullooly)

Technology