CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.6. Data analysis and interpretation
According to Starks and Brown Trinidad (2007), the analytic approach chosen needs to align with
“the desired product of study, with the researchers‟ assumptions, existing knowledge, and reasons for engaging in research” (p. 1372). This research endeavoured to explore and understand human experience. Not just any human experience but the African experience of an African phenomenon.
For this reason, an Afrocentric phenomenological approach to data analysis was appropriate.
However, the core epistemological assumption upon which this research was based was that of
“complex subjectivity” (Parker, 2002, p. 196): a person has agency but is enmeshed in his or her social, political and economic milieu (Parker, 2002). Based on this assumption, information or truth can only be known contextually and subjectively: it is always made sense of through a personal lens (Parker, 2002; Smith and Osborn, 2003). In this way, any phenomenon has to be made sense of, firstly by the participant who provides a personally interpreted narrative of the phenomenon, and secondly by the researcher who has to then subjectively interpret this narrative (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Accordingly, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which combines the phenomenological focus with this double interpretative approach, was utilised as the analytical method. It is an inductive, idiographic and hermeneutic analytical method which aims to explore and understand subjective experiences of a phenomenon and how such experiences are made sense of (Smith & Osborn, 2003).
55 In addition, this analytic approach required an Afrocentric orientation so that the African phenomenon under study would be interpreted from an African-centred standpoint (Pellerin, 2012).
Accordingly, analysis needed to be both Afrocentric and interpretive phenomenological. This combined approach was possible due to the strong correlation between the IPA approach, which emphasises participants‟ contextual and personal idiosyncrasies (Smith & Osborn, 2003), and the typically ideographic, interpretative approach endorsed by and often used in Afrocentric methodology (Schreiber, 2000). The analytic method dictated by IPA was therefore used, but the interpretation of participants‟ lived experience was analysed using the researcher‟s subjective, but African-centred interpretation of these experiences (Pellerin, 2012; Reid et al., 2005).
According to Smith and Osborn (2003), the goal of IPA is to develop core themes, a process which culminates in writing a narrative account that presents, explains and elaborates on these central themes supported by verbatim quotes. The method of analysis followed was the method put forward by Smith and Osborn (2003). Although this method of analysis is presented as a coherent procedural, step by step process, the authors emphasise that this is not realistic as analysis is meant to be an iterative process – some processes of analysis occur coincidently, others occur later, and some aspects are repeated (Smith & Osborn, 2003). However, the step-by-step procedure given provides clarity for the reader and was a useful tool for the researcher during analysis.
The steps for IPA as put forward by Smith and Osborn (2003) and used as a guide for analysis in this study were as follows:
1) The researcher was to fully engage with the collected material and become familiar with it through numerous readings and note-taking on various points. As IPA is an idiographic approach, it was necessary to examine and analyse one interview transcript in detail before moving onto the next interview transcript. Extensive notes were made by the researcher as these assisted in the production of themes through inductive thematisation (Terre Blanche, Durrheim & Kelly, 2006).
The themes and notes detailed from each participant‟s transcript were used to aid in the analysis of subsequent transcripts. This was done for three reasons: a) efficiency, b) to render contrasts more apparent, and c) to discover common themes that could have otherwise been missed.
Although the discovery and exploration of common themes is significant both in IPA and Afrocentric methodology (Schiele, 1990; Smith & Osborn, 2003), this research also presents and explores comparisons between different geographic areas and therefore needed to consider dissimilarities too. Although unusual, according to Reid et al. (2005), such a comparison means that the phenomenon under study is explored from different angles, and this “can help the IPA analyst to develop a more detailed and multifaceted account of that phenomenon as a kind of
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„triangualtion‟” (p. 22). As this was the goal of the research, both similarities and differences between participants and the two participant subgroups were important in analysis.
2) The second step put forward to guide analysis was coding. This process entailed listing all the themes established for a single case and then finding connections between these themes. Related themes were grouped together and these groups were subsequently given theme headings. It was then necessary that these theme headings be checked against and clearly linked with verbatim quotes from that transcript, so as to ensure that these broader themes demonstrated coherence and authenticity, therefore safeguarding inductive probability. Accordingly, suitable extracts from each transcript were placed with the broader themes developed from that transcript, providing evidence for the researcher‟s interpretations. This process of thematising, clustering and thematising was carried out with all the collected data.
3)On completion of the previous process, common overarching themes from all participants‟
transcripts were listed. These themes needed to be “informed by the original Africanism displayed for the sake of genuineness and validity” (Pellerin, 2012, p. 157). Accordingly, it was important that the overarching themes were relevant, apparent and clarifying of the overall study and were once again supported by verbatim evidence. These superordinate themes provided the focus and structure for analysis.
4)The fourth and last step of analysis was interwoven with the first part of the write up and entails an exploration and elaboration on the themes induced (Terre Blanche et al., 2006). This research write up takes the form of a narrative account where the developed themes have been described, explained and elaborated upon in an effort to produce an overall interpretation of participants‟
experiences and perceptions of Ubuntu. (Reid et al., 2005). The given analysis was thus an argument that provides support for the researcher‟s subjective understanding, but Afrocentric interpretation, of participants‟ experiences and perceptions of Ubuntu. The argument for this interpretation has been clarified and bolstered by participants‟ verbatim quotes.
These four steps describe the guiding process of analysis (as put forward by Smith and Osborn, (2003)) used by the researcher. It should be clear to the reader that the analysis given and understandings of Ubuntu put forward, are not representative of an absolute truth. Rather these explanations of Ubuntu are interpretations on the part of the researcher, (supported by extant literature and always positioned around participants‟ voices), which aim to accurately represent, clarify and expand on participants‟ narratives regarding Ubuntu, and thus provide insight into Ubuntu itself (Kelly, 2006; Reid et al. 2005). In addition, the results have been stated not as current truths but as historical accounts. This is because, from the Afrocentric perspective, the perpetual
57 fluidity of life means that nothing is constant and therefore participants‟ previous narratives may not be the same as their current narratives of the same phenomenon (Schreiber, 2000). Furthermore, it should be evident to the reader that the results and discussion have been framed and contextualised from an Afrocentric standpoint so as to produce an insightful African-based narrative about the African experience of an African phenomenon (Pellerin, 2012).
As qualitative research openly uses the researcher as the primary instrument of analysis, included in the discussion is a reflexive piece which critically reflects on my role as a researcher and the context in which the data was interpreted (Creswell, 2003; Pellerin, 2012; Starks & Brown Trinidad, 2007). This is a candid account of my own perspectives and beliefs and how these may have influenced by interpretations, as well as an acknowledgement of the etic position from which this study was undertaken, and the advantages and disadvantages of this position (Schreiber, 2000). The purpose of this was to allow the reader to orientate himself or herself to the material from the researcher‟s (my) perspective and thus evaluate whether the account given was „true‟ and plausible from this perspective (Kelly; 2006; Smith & Osborn, 2008; Tindall, 1994).
The overall aim of data analysis was to transform raw data into comprehensive and comprehensible results without compromising the original truth of the data (Pellerin, 2012; Smith & Osborn, 2003).
The resulting narrative should readily enable the reader to note the significant features of the experience and understanding of Ubuntu as voiced by participants (Starks & Brown Trinidad, 2007). In addition, the interpretations put forward should read as plausible and coherent (Starks &
Brown Trinidad, 2007). In this way, this study expected to achieve what Smith and Osborn (2008) call „theoretical generalisability‟ where the reader can, given all the necessary material and information, come to the same conclusions as the researcher. It is expected that the results gained from this analysis and the ensuing discussion, will provide the reader with authentic information regarding participants‟ experiences and understandings of Ubuntu and in so doing, offer valuable insights into Ubuntu itself.