[week10] W E F / Ch 6. Coding and Memoing / 25.03.23 / 오은

6. Processing Fieldnotes: Coding and Memoing

Revisit the fieldwork note and memos
coherent and focused analyses

172–199 (missing 192-199)

1/ READ
2/ Analytical coding
= line-by-line categorization of notes
- Open Coding
- Focused Coding
Reading → Coding and reviewing →  Code memos → integrative memos

from how Grounded theory approach – as a tool for qualitative data
“analytic categories directly from the data, not from preconceived concepts or hypotheses”

Before : GT considered that there is concepts and analytic categories were there to be discovered
Contemporary GT : inductive, but no longer emphasize the “discovery”, analysis = inductive AND deductive, or “reproductive”  귀납적 및 연역적, 또는 "성찰적" - 끊임없이 다듬기.

1st STEP
-Close reading
-Open coding
-Writing memos

2nd STEP
-Focused coding
-Integrative memos

READING FIELDNOTES AS A DATA SET
OPEN CODING
WRITING CODE MEMOS
FOCUSED CODING
INTEGRATIVE MEMOS
REFLECTIONS: CREATING THEORY FROM FIELDNOTES


READING FIELDNOTES AS A DATA SET
p173

Field note as a data set
reading and active identifying themes/paterns/variations

Line by line (until no new ideas/issues)
1/ note Changes in time (ex. Distance → rapport)
2/ As a whole : fresh insight from change of the previous understanding, contrast between before and after (ex. Unfamiliar culture/language)
3/ As a whole : basis for finding paterns + differences

Read as if someone else wrote
analysis = act of betrayal ? → Time and distance




OPEN CODING
p175

Coding : margin / different paper / comment
capture ideas without worrying whole structure

CF / quantitative methode : categories constructed from theory
qualitative methode : inductive analytic categories → opening up inquiry + insight (=/= “labelling”)

programs like CAQDAS  (Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) or different systems
BUT

1/ high price to start (and learn + organize)
2/ Difficulty to modify ongoing work
3/ risk of superficial categorization

“Computers can be used to do coding, but the analyst must be very careful not to fall into the trap of just fixing labels on a piece of paper, then putting pile of ‘raw’ data under that label. If a researcher does just this, he or she will end up with a series of concepts with nothing reflective said about what the data are indicating. Even with computers, the researcher must take the time to reflect on data
and write memos” (Corbin and Strauss 2008:163).

Process of asking questions – from various points, different direct/indirect experiences, …

Writing code = idea/intuition TO concrete concise word/phrase : stimulation/shape/focus thinking
“thinking with your fingers.”

List of useful questions
• What are people doing? What are they trying to accomplish?
• How, exactly, do they do this? What specific means and/or strategies do they use?
• How do members talk about, characterize, and understand what is going on? What assumptions are they making?
• What do I see going on here? What did I learn from these notes? Why did I include them?
• How is what is going on here similar to, or different from, other incidents or events recorded elsewhere in the fieldnotes?
• What is the broader import or significance of this incident or event? What is it a case of ?

→ 1/ processes (> causes, motives, no “why” question but interpretation /analysis)
     2/ practical and pragmatic concerns, conditions, constraints of actors (not concentrating on dramatic action/event)
     3/ specify meanings and POV (why “I” chose to write this in fieldnote ? Interpretation)
     4/ general theoritical dimensions than particular event/situation (relationship, comparison, similarity and variations → making case)

examples : Ushers at dancers’ performance night, late client rage


Ushers’ understanding, interaction between customers and manager
categorization of customers
code → relation to “like” events
naming “waters : irate” → further dev possible (likewise or not)

quantitative coding = reliability
qualitative coding = possibility for open and different /multiples choices of focus on same subject (ex. performer-audience interaction, household labor)

Open Coding as Process

general category for/against → specific !
generate many codes as possible ! (even not in “focus”)

Example : Alzheimer support group talk





generated issues from codes =


Some codes suits pre-determined point : troubles and remedy
hiding the keys ? Doctors as possible barriers and allies ?

- from Start to Reading to the end, category and theme changed.
“You feel you know your notes because you wrote them, but the thing is, you wrote them so long ago that it doesn’t click.

“The coding process, it happened once, and then it happened again. I ended up coding again and again and again. . . . I had to get over the fact that I would do it the wrong way, or I wouldn’t really find any good categories or things wouldn’t relate to one another. I had to get over the fear of thinking that there was nothing there.”

Coding = uncertain – but it helps linking, focus, anchor data

it takes time (reading line-by-line), anxious, random, no organization , frustration, …
→ At this stage it is positive, because it opens up possible issues and directions.
Try to resist to stay and focus on only specific themes/topics

→ After some stage : Selective open coding

WRITING CODE MEMOS
p185

Code Memos : from coding to writing memos
- identify/write about core processes (characterize talk and interaction in a particular setting)

Example : residential program for ex-prostitutes, drug addiction AND prostitution


Memo is put together with dialogue
identity as Drug addict than Prostitute

Example :  interaction among courtroom personnel to “sustain community and insideness”



Identify pattern and contrast interactions in different occasions



SELECTING THEMES
p188

Different ways – Priority to Data (amount/quantity), significance,amount time-consuming, …

Example : probation office















Identify tasks, actual work

Find link, linking themes, creating subthemes

If lose focus ? = (example : case of school budget cuts and how activity continues -) Opening new theme (?)

“… And then I just started looking at the relationships that students have with each other inside band and outside. It was just the weirdest thing—I lost my paper! The more I coded, the more I lost my paper.

… What she initially reported negatively as “having lost her paper” really indicates an openness to new issues and ways of putting things together”

When students feel the Focus disappeared :
1> there is not “something” out there. researcher’s sensitivity
2> there is no incoherence in data → interpretation and organization, significance

Sorting themes – emerging from notes
Inclusive themes (ex. Alzheimer support group → theme : ,“management practices” even though it is like deceiving patient to manage problematic behavior )

Physical mouvement of data (cut and paste over wall or over table or computer)
- but keep the original

FOCUSED CODING
p191

Analysis of notes by connecting data

ex. Alzheimer’s support group = Stigma , through the category “passing” afrom “covering” or “collusion”

! Comparisons between incidents !

Subcodes :
192-199

INTEGRATIVE MEMOS
p193

REFLECTIONS: CREATING THEORY FROM FIELDNOTES
p197