Analysing the data

For research with the aim to investigate a phenomenon, it is wise to go deeper into the interesting parts of each interview. The term method means “the way to the goal” (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009: 199) – so the aims and goals of the study should serve as guides on the way throughout the analysis. “What information is desired? What are the questions we seek

answers to? “How can these interviews help expanding my knowledge concerning the phenomena investigated?” (Kvale and Brinkmann: 200, my translation).

Moreover, Kvale and Brinkmann advice the researcher to be careful about viewing the interviews as pure transcriptions, they should rather be considered as ‘living conversations’, that is – what they originally were in the first place: “The transcript is a bastard, - a hybrid.”

(Kvale and Brinkmann: 200).

3.4.1 Analysing the interview data

The importance of keeping in mind that data is authored/created in companionship with the interviewee, is stressed by Kvale and Brinkmann (2009). It has been an aim in this research

17 Mishler (1986) employ the term ‘speech event’ about “activities, or aspects of activities, that are directly governed by rules for the use of speech” (Mishler, 1986: 35)

44 project to recall the situation of the interviews, both during transcript and analysis. In light of this, the analysis becomes a natural continuation of the conversations carried out during the interview sessions. All transcribed interviews were thoroughly examined several times at this stage, and notes were taken in order to find patterns, see connections and differences and to get a thorough overview. The planning of themes and categories was also of importance at this stage. In the following section, I will present the standards and criteria for the data analysis of this project.

Kvale and Brinkmann present six¹⁸ stages of the analysis process, and I will here focus on the first four of them, which are:

1. The interviewee describes his or her experiences

2. The interviewees become aware of, or detect new meanings based on their experiences which they spontaneously describe

3. The interviewer interprets and abridges the meanings of the interviewee’s

words/descriptions, e.g. asks more questions to ensure capturing what the interviewee says about the topic investigated. Ideally, this approach of re-questioning continues until there is just one possible interpretation left, or until it becomes clear that the interviewee actually means something else, or even has two contradictory opinions.

The aim and purpose of this approach is to unveil and detect the participant’s exact meanings and understandings.

4. The interviewer interprets the contents of the transcribed interview, structuring the material and preparing for a thorough analysis.

(Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009: 203)

As previously mentioned, the analysis process starts long before the actual Analysis of interview data, and even long before conducting the interviews. The analysis process is a continuous process with implications for all stages of the interview research process.

To continue, in research interviews with focus on meaning, the data should be analysed according to:

18 Steps 5 and 6 include re-interviewing and acting upon the newfound insight/information (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009: 203)

45

 Coding¹⁹ (of meaning)

 Condensation (of meaning)

 Interpretation (of meaning)

(Kvale and Brinkmann 2009: 205) Qualitative research is challenging in many ways, and there is no “easy way” to the goal.

Various data programmes/software can ease and aid the process of analysing data, but as far as this project is concerned, all data has been analysed ‘manually’.

Coding is the process of attaching one or more key words to a transcript excerpt with the aim to identify an utterance later on. Quantification of central concepts concerned with in the interviews is an overall aim here. ‘Content analysis’ is a technique aiming to help describing an utterance’s content. What is really being said? What is really meant here? The meaning of the content can now be further categorized, and the division into different categories will make it possible to quantify the number of themes mentioned in a text/transcript. (Kvale and Brinkmann 2009: 205).

The purpose of meaning condensation is to forward abridgements of the utterances given by the interviewee; long sentences are systematically abridged. Kvale and Brinkmann (2009:

213) underscore the importance of capturing the rich and nuanced descriptions (enunciations) for further investigation, especially in phenomenological research. Meaning condensation can be carried out by outscoring a unit and in this way detect central themes in the interview.

During the following stage of analysis, interpretation of meaning, one can carry out a deeper and more scrutinized investigation of the meaning content. The researcher here aims to detect the structures of meaning. The interpretation of meaning can often lead to an enlargement (of text), where the result might be contrived in more words than in the primary utterance.

3.4.2 Categorization

After a thorough review of the transcripts and additional notes, I started going through the material one interview at a time, in order to see how relevant information could be tagged, and linked to each question asked. Then I started to select the utterances that were most

19 The ‘coding’ is just a part of the analysis. Coding as a process includes several ‘steps’ such as discovering

patterns, finding relevant key terms and, in terms of coding, tagging and labeling, and ultimately creating categories.

46 relevant in relation to the questions asked. I used different colours to mark utterances or parts of utterances due to the different categories made. Grouping the data into categories is a common way of organizing the transcribed interview material, as it will make it more comprehensible. It is of great importance that the researcher keeps an open mind during this process, as the material, the transcribed interviews, should be able to speak for itself.

According to Kvale and Brinkmann (2009: 202), one should aim to develop categories that

“capture the fullness of the experiences and actions studied”.

The categories I chose were based on the different themes in the interview guides, which in their turn were founded in the research questions. When all the central categories had been highlighted I could carry on with coding within each of these. “Text approach” is an example of a category and “reader-centred” could be an example of a ‘tag’ or label within this

category. The most important aspect of this work was to elicit each informants experience with the phenomenon in each category. The tagging was primarily a help to see and detect as many facets and nuances as possible. See example of coding and categorization of this study’s interview material in Appendix 7.