PhD researcher doing qualitative data analysis? You're the family tech support now. Sorry.
Qualitative data analysis during your PhD can feel a bit like trying to untangle the cables behind your TV.
“Wait, what's this one for?”
“Where does this go?”
“It's not even connected to anything!”
"Should we just call Tom?" (every family has someone who knows how to mop up a techy mess, ours is Tom, he's the law-abiding equivalent of Harry de Souza from MobLand).
Next thing you know, you've unplugged an unimportant looking cable that looks like it belongs in 1997 and the whole damn thing stops working. 😂
That's a bit like qualitative data analysis, isn't it?
Rather than co-axials, HDMI cables and SCART leads (remember them?!), you've got codes, themes and subthemes and you're trying to work out how everything fits together.
You start twiddling and fiddling. Splitting that theme into sub-themes, moving that code out of that theme, moving it back in again. Oh - wait... you took that theme out, so where does that code go now? Is it even still a code, is it now a theme?
Argh, send help!
Before you start firing off flares - the emergency ones, not the trousers (that would be interesting) - remember this...
Qualitative data analysis is about developing an interpretation of your data that makes sense in light of your research aims and questions. Something you can stand behind and confidently defend to someone who hasn't lived inside your brain for the last four years. Nor would they have wanted to, let's be honest, because the behind-the-scenes of messy cables would have them going, "Oh...".
The thing about the mess is that it's a necessary phase of qualitative data analysis. I don't know any qualitative researcher who's sailed through their analysis in one neat pass without shedding any tears or wondering whether they should just go pursue a whole other thing and never speak of this PhD business again.
Don't rush through the mess. Sit in it for a bit — you might as well. 😂
Whilst you're sitting there, resist the urge to pull everything apart and start again. Instead, try to work out what each bit is doing and whether you actually need it.
Everyone else sees a TV that works perfectly well. They don't see the tangled cables, dusty old co-axials and discarded cat toys lurking behind it. Why would they? They're not looking that closely. But you ARE, because this is your PhD.
That's the difference. You're getting into the detail of your research in a way nobody else has. You're starting to understand which bits connect and which bits have absolutely no business being there anymore. That's the messy bit of qualitative data analysis - it's where some of your most important analytical thinking happens.
So, before you start ripping everything out, work out which cables are actually keeping the telly on.
Where next?
If you're currently sitting behind the metaphorical telly, surrounded by questionable wiring decisions, here are three places you can go next. No need to call Tom just yet. 😂
▶️ WATCH — Get your head around qualitative data analysis
If you're wondering how to make sense of your data, I've got a YouTube video that will help you think through what you're actually trying to do when you analyse qualitative data.
→ Watch my qualitative data analysis video
📥 FREE — What they don't tell you about qualitative data analysis
There's a whole lot of stuff that doesn't make it into the neat little diagrams and textbook explanations. My free guide, Qualitative Data Analysis: What They Don't Tell You, explores some of those less-talked-about realities of analysing qualitative data during your PhD.
→ Get the free qualitative data analysis guide
📘 GO DEEPER — Turn your data into a defensible analysis
If you want practical help working through your qualitative data that isn’t just a series of mildly condescending steps (“Just do this four-stage process, duh!🙄”) my Data to Analysis PhD Survival Guide is designed to help you do exactly that.