Second Cycle coding methods (see Chapter Four). But note that some question
qualitative research’s ability to assert causality: “the understanding of human
experience is a matter of chronologies more than of causes and effects” (Stake,
1995, p. 39).
Amounts of data to code
One related issue with which qualitative research methodologists disagree is
the amount of the data corpus – the total body of data – that should be coded.
Some (e.g., Lofland et al., 2006; Strauss, 1987; cf.Wolcott, 1999) feel that every
recorded fieldwork detail is worthy of consideration, for it is from the pat-
terned minutiae of daily life that we might generate significant social insight.
Others (e.g., Seidman, 2006), if not most, feel that only the most salient por-
tions of the corpus merit examination, and that even up to one half of the total
record can be summarized or deleted, leaving the primary half for intensive
data analysis. The danger is that the portions deleted might contain the as yet
unknown units of data that could pull everything together, or include the nega-
tive case that motivates a rethinking of a code, category, theme, concept, theory,
or assertion. Postmodern perspectives on ethnographic texts consider all docu-
mentation and reports partial and incomplete anyway, so the argument for main-
taining and coding a full or reduced data corpus seems moot. Amount
notwithstanding, insure that you have not just sufficient qualitative but sufficient
quality data with which to work that have been appropriately transcribed and
formatted (see Poland, 2002).
I have learned from years of qualitative data analysis that, only with experi-
ence, I now feel more secure knowing and feeling what is important in the
data record and what is not, and thus code what rises to the surface – “relevant
text” as Auerbach & Silverstein (2003) label it.The beginning of my fieldwork
career, however, was a major learning curve for me, and I coded anything and
everything that was collected. I advise the same for novices to qualitative
research.You, too, will eventually discover from experience what matters and
what doesn’t in the data corpus. (Of course, there will always be brief passages
of minor or trivial consequence scattered throughout interviews and field
notes. Code these N/A – not applicable.)
So, what gets coded? Slices of social life recorded in the data – participant
activities, perceptions, and the tangible documents and artifacts produced by
them. Your own reflective data in the form of analytic memos (discussed in
Chapter Two) and observer’s comments in field notes are also substantive mate-
rial for coding.The process does not have to be approached as if it were some
elusive mystery or detective story with deeply hidden clues and misleading red
herrings scattered throughout. If “human actions are based upon, or infused by,
social meanings: that is, by intentions, motives, beliefs, rules, and values”
AN INTRODUCTION TO CODES AND CODING
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