5.3 Data Analysis Method and Techniques
5.3.1 Analytical Thematic Induction
The first approach to data analysis utilised for this study was to identify themes that emerge from data following interviews with participants. Essentially, instead of trying to fit participants’ answers into a predetermined and preconceived research frame, a thematic analysis was used to recognise, evaluate and describe patterns and themes as analysis driven by data. This concurs with Durrheim’s (2008) suggestion that in qualitative research, data analysis begins by identifying themes in the data, and the relationships between these themes. As such, analytical induction is therefore a process of identifying patterns and themes in the data rather than deciding, prior to data collection or analysis what the precise variables or data categories will be (Curtis and Curtis 2011:43). For this reason, Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke (2006:79) have shown that thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally organises and describes a research data set in (rich) detail.69
69 In relation to thematic analysis, a theme captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set. Data corpus refers to all data collected for a particular research project, while data set refers to all the data from the corpus that are being used for a particular analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006).
Braun and Clarke (2006:81) therefore point out that thematic analysis can be a method that works both to reflect reality and to unpick or unravel the surface of ‘reality’ arguing:
Thematic analysis can be an essentialist or realist method, which reports experiences, meanings and the reality of participants, or it can be a constructionist method, which examines the ways in which events, realities, meanings, experiences and so on are the effects of a range of discourses operating within society (2006:81).
In relation to this observation, this study applied a constructionist method of thematic analysis by acknowledging ways in which participants in this study sought meaning within the broader social contexts and how their representation of who a man is had an impact on their discourses of masculinity, thereby influencing understandings of a “godly manhood.” Several steps were applicable for a thematic analysis method for this study.
These are briefly discussed in what follows.
First, it was important that I familiarise and immerse myself in the data by reading and rereading. This has been encouraged especially by Braun and Clarke (2006:87) and Terre Blanche et al. (2008a:323) who insist that this must involve a thorough working with the texts (field notes and interview transcripts) by carefully reading through the texts many times, over and over. The thematic analysis applied utilised a ‘latent level’ approach to thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006). Unlike in a ‘semantic approach’ where the researcher identifies the themes by looking at the surface meanings without going beyond what the participants said, (Braun and Clarke 2006:84), the latent approach goes beyond the semantic content of the data by identifying or examining the underlying ideas, assumptions, and conceptualisations and ideologies that are theorised as shaping or informing the semantic content of the data (Braun and Clarke 2006).
Second, because thematic analysis does not require a detailed theoretical and technological knowledge of approaches (Braun and Clarke 2006:81), individual data items (interviews) were reread over and notes taken to facilitate initial coding of interesting features of the data in a systematic manner across the entire data set (Braun and Clarke 2006). This enabled me to organise data into meaningful groups of themes.
Third, is the phase in which themes are searched and categorised by gathering all data relevant to each theme, and then defining and naming the themes. Braun and Clarke
(2006:89) have suggested that this could involve sorting the different codes into potential themes, and collating all the relevant coded data extracts within identified themes.70 As observed by Braun and Clarke (2006), a researcher should eventually be able to describe the scope and content of each theme, the relationship between codes, between themes, and between different levels of themes (eg, the main overarching themes and semi-themes within them). Due to an overwhelming number of identified themes in the data, I decided for the purpose of this study to concentrate on themes which emerged common from the responses, or portrayed a sense of conflict and contradictory discourses across a range of data gathered.
The table below illustrates some themes and sub-themes which emerged dominant from the data. These have been engaged further in my analysis and discussion in subsequent chapters.
Themes Sub-themes
Return to ‘godly manhood’
The “Mighty Men” and ‘Crisis in Masculinity.
Patriarchal response to feminism
Renegotiating racial reconciliation or forgiveness
Issues of sexuality and gender performance
Response to social, economic shifts
‘God’s Design’ for ‘godly manhood’
The “Mighty Men” and Responsible ‘godly manhood’
‘Godly manhood’ and Masculine Headship and Leadership
‘Godly manhood’ and Masculine Performance (provider and protector).
Divine Status, wealth and Privilege as the Essence of ‘godly manhood.’
The Measure of ‘godly manhood’
“Godly manhood” and Masculine Spirituality
Priest, King and Prophet
“Godly manhood” and the remaking of Fatherhood (masculine emotionalism and non- violence).
“Christ the man” and
“Christian manhood”
Christ as ‘model’ or ‘counter model’
‘Godly manhood’ and masculine power
Alternative Ideals of “Christ-like’ ‘godly manhood’
Table 2: Summary of themes and sub-theme from a ‘latent level’ of thematic analysis.
70 Coding means breaking up the data in analytically relevant ways (sub-themes) to one or more of the themes (Terre Blanche et al. (2008:324).