Qualitative data analysis and interpretation - Assignment Example

Qualitative Data Analysis and Interpretation By Insert Presented to Location Due QuestionOne In any given research project, there must be a question for which the researcher is supposed to determine the answer. Better yet, there must be a topic on which to dwell on. in focusing on the basic considerations when designing the research project, this part of the essay seeks to explore the areas of focus from the scientific and ethnographic points of view. As earlier stated, a research project must have a topic or question of focus.

Furthermore, when one is designing the research question, they have to design the way in which they would answer the questions. In elaborating more about this Crawford, Leybourne, and Arnott (2000) explains that it is through this research design that the project must be able to provide research outcomes that would assist them to share and its quality can be assessed. However, before embarking on any research project, Creswell (2008) explains that researchers must select the type of approach to adopt.

This is because with either the scientific or the ethnographic approach, one has to focus on various aspects of the research project. Case in point, from a scientific perspective, the researcher must focus on acquiring measurements and patterns that that enable them to turn theories into principles. On the contrary, the ethnographers focus on cultural practices and thus are able to offer reasons that result in various situation observed in the society. However, the main areas of focus do not vary so much.

This is because just like the scientists, ethnographers begin their research projects by defining the research topic or question. Secondly, they design means of gathering the data before preparing to carry out qualitative or quantitative analysis of the collected details. Finally, they present results of their findings and follow this up with a comprehensive interpretation of the data (Thompson & Barrett, 2007). Nevertheless, based on the adoption of the research philosophy, Lincoln and Guba (1998) explain that the scientists and ethnographers focus on different criteria.

This is because while in their analysis the scientists are interested in determining the validity and reliability of research projects, the ethnographers focus on dependability and value of the research studies. Therefore, this also contributes to the factors to consider when designing a research design for either an ethnographic study or scientific study. Case in point, if the researchers focus on a scientific approach, they ensure that they consider measurements, collections and analysis of data collected.

Furthermore, they also consider the natural scientific models and also seek to adopt a deductive reasoning for the study. What’s more, they also ensure that the data collected is quantitative and statistical methods are used to analyze it. However, for the ethnographers, the focus is mainly on the examination of individual differences, furthermore, they choose social sciences for the research models and also seek to collect qualitative data for their studies. Therefore, this implies that their analysis is thematic and observations and interviews form basic methods of collecting data (Seale, 2009).

Question Two: Brief Report In analysing the qualitative information presented in the five files, I realised that I was supposed to use NVIVO to perform the exercise. This is because the software assists one to manage everything, import and share documents, code the sources, organize nodes and classify them before being able to export the results to other programs. Therefore, I opened the program in my computer and began working on it. I opened a new project and added a connection for the projects.

Then, I was able to import my sources and since the type of sources for my project was .doc files, I had to import them into the software. Later, I created nodes for the information for themes and also gather evidence about the relationships between items in my project. I also classified the information about my sources, nodes and relationships. Considering the fact that the data to be analysed was qualitative, I realised that it lied in the category of interviews. However, while analysing, I had to code the sources for my project.

This was achieved by basing the nodes on themes and topics as I explored my sources. For simplicity purposes, I created the nodes before coding and they were as follows: Main node: Management Themes: Operation management Club continuity Club rearrangement Committee Club operation Partners Main node: Games Themes: Clubs Cricket Olympics National teams Game growth locally Game growth internationally Main node: Operations Themes: Strategies of operation Operational system Resource availability Operational department In addition to coding the projects, I also got the chance to explore the project.

This included the use of queries and the display of data charts for the project. The figures representing the NVIVO report is presented below.