THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
4.6 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
on the participant's background and profession. For example, most of the respondents gave examples about issues they were involved with on a daily basis. It made sense to engage them on those issues so as to make the interviews much more focused. Since I spoke to each respondent in person, where necessary, it was easier to make follow-ups by email, telephone and in person. The face-to-face approach enabled probing and immediate follow-ups on responses. Probes formed a central part of the interviews as they presented opportunities to explore contradictions and inconsistencies as they arose or were noted. Probes included questions about the meaning of particular phrases and clarification about statements.
There is a downside to interviews as with all approaches to data collection (Burton 2002).
Weaknesses include high prospects of poor interpersonal communication by the researcher or the respondent. While interview guides may systematize interview content, they can vary significantly depending on the participants' areas of interest, expertise, communication style, and the rapport between the researcher and the participant.
Language problems can also diminish the value of interviews. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, for this particularly study, the advantages outnumbered the disadvantages, hence the decision to use interviews. Moreover, the subject matter itself demanded the use of interviews.
Rossman 1989; Hutchinson and Sawyer 1994), was done in three stages which were all guided by the following requirements:
• In-depth understanding of each individual interview;
• Identification of cross-cutting and emergent phenomena (those not conceived of in the early stages of the study);
• Linking of analyses conducted during the different stages of the interview process to ensure a continuing dialogue between data and interpretation.
Stage 1 involved the transcribing and editing of tape recorded interviews. I began transcribing in the early stages of the interview process. Transcribing may not in the strict sense qualify as part of data analysis, but it helped to lay the foundation for further, more detailed analysis. This was possible because transcribing provided me with a first 'scan' at the 'mechanics' of the interview process such as the need to be more careful about the location of the tape recorder, to ask respondents to speak directly to the recorder or to turn off potential recorded sound quality detractors before the interview could even begin, etc. The above-described activities aimed at refining the 'mechanics' were undertaken for the first few interviews.
Every interview was edited after it was transcribed. The editing process involved listening to the interview as a whole and in the process detecting inconsistencies.
Thus, it was this stage which can be said to be more closely associated with data analysis, though in a less detailed manner. Editing incorporated compilation of notes to provide a synthesis of initial emergent insights and a record of new thoughts.
Tracking emergent insights and keeping a record of all insights from interviews facilitated the detection of both intra-interview and across interview similarities and contradictions. Such insights formed the basis for further questions as the interview process progressed. For example, notes encouraged cross-referencing and were an important resource during the writing stage, but more importantly, they provided immediate feedback about the interview process. Importantly, however, these notes were not interview summaries because they did not capture every subject raised by every respondent.
Each edited interview was converted to a rich text file and exported to a qualitative data analysis software known as QSR Nvivo. This software enables a researcher to identify coded texts that relate to his or her general themes. Coded text can be collated in different ways. Also, retrieval of coded text either within a narrative or a number of narratives is possible.
Stage 2 was concerned with intra-interview analysis with the aim of developing a more detailed understanding of each interview. Thus, this stage marked the beginning of more detailed data analysis. At this stage, I already had some understanding of every interview from the preceding stage of transcribing and editing the interviews.
Careful reading of final edited interview texts was followed by the identification of dominant themes and the designation of codes to those themes. The coding process led to the development of an organizing system through which the interviews could subsequently be meaningfully categorized, interpreted and presented. Open coding was used, whereby themes and meaning units were identified and organized under single words or short phrases related to the theme. This approach allows meaning to emerge from the data and codes were created and adapted to best that data as opposed to starting with a predetermined set of codes (Straus and Corbin 1990; Coffey and Atkinson 1996).
It was necessary to keep the coding basic enough so as not to address all the complexities inherent in the narrative. Instead, coding was deliberately basic to serve just as pointers or markers to provide a framework for later, deeper and more complex analysis. For example, all references to finances, excess labour force and profitability within a given interview were assigned to the same general code of 'resources'. Subsequent re-reading of the interview text often led to a much more detailed coding profile. Text segments coded simply as 'resources' were further coded to indicate whether they referred to declining state funding, budgetary deficits, a disproportionate portion of the budget for salaries or commercialization. Coding was initially done by hand on hardcopies of the interview transcripts. Throughout this process, I was mindful of Schein's emphasis on
using issue-focused interviews and the need to establish patterns amongst the codes instead of treating them as being mutually exclusive (Schein 1992). As such, texts were often assigned multiple codes. For example, a description of commercialization might be referenced with the code 'income generation' and also with 'compromise of public ethos'.
Not all the themes developed were relevant for every interview. This necessitated the reorganization of the coded portions of every interview's thematic titles relevant to that interview. Reorganized coded portions of interview texts were generally a reflection of the earlier coding system, but they exhibited more interrelationships which suggested a much more developed and evolved understanding of the data.
Sometimes, an excerpt contained several themes, in which case I had to make a decision as to which heading was the most appropriate for it. In order not to lose such an excerpt's connection to other headings, it was cross-referenced. Because interviews after transcription were on average in excess of 12 pages (single spaced) , it was important to abridge them for further analysis purposes. Thus, the last component of intra-interview analysis involved the development of narrative summaries for each interview. Narrative summaries provided an overview of the key themes and important interrelationships within the purview of each interview.
Stage 3 involved the identification of themes that were common across interviews. The earlier processes of reorganizing and summarizing interviews were therefore logical preceding activities. The goal of this stage was to develop a deeper level of understanding about the respondents in line with the hermeneutic principle of 'part-to- whole' analysis exemplified in the hermeneutic circle. In order to capture all the relevant themes, I ensured that this stage was iterative, often going back to the original interviews to clarify issues in the narrative summaries. Continuous reference to the narrative summaries helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the interview material, not individually, but collectively. This was a critical aspect of the analysis and
Single spaced in font size 12 (Times New Roman and single spaced). Transcription produced in excess of 500 pages; the longest interview had 38 pages while the shortest had 9 pages.
it conformed to Schein's emphasis on the need for establishing an understanding of interrelationships in the interview material in order to gain an enhanced perspective on a culture under review (Schein 1992).
Analysis in stage 3 involved reading the summaries and identifying recurrent themes.
Some themes were very closely linked and there was a possibility of redundancy and duplication of information. As such, I combined some themes deemed appropriate based on my understanding of the entire interview material. This obviously represents a potential downside of the study in that the final organization is not completely data- based, but also reflects subjective choices I had to make. After working through the list of themes that emerged, I organized them into coherent groups. Grouping of themes and the choice of a heading for each group were based on language used by interview participants with a view to capturing the common underlying meaning of the themes within each group. I selected or developed a heading for each group based on the language used by the respondents. Hence, grouping of themes expressed the relationships that were inherent in the narratives of the respondents.
4.6.1 Choosing excerpts for inclusion in the text
Not all interview quotes could be included in the final write up. It is therefore necessary to briefly explain the method used for the selection of excerpts. Frequently, there were a number of excerpts that could be used to convey a specific point. Therefore, the writing stage involved substantial analysis across interviews. Excerpts related to each theme were examined and further comparisons made across interviews. Analysis incorporated a variety of perspectives on a particular topic, and on how different participants articulated similar (or different) ideas. Underpinning excerpt analysis was the interaction between the individual and broader context. Short quotes are listed without much context. This approach was used for findings that were comparatively easy to communicate, and generally agreed upon and unlikely to be contested. In some instances, a number of related or contrasting excerpts are provided in order to show variety or similarity of views about a single issue. Verbatim excerpts from documentary sources are
indented, while those from interview material are indented and in italics and further distinguished by a unique identification number of the respondent .