Major Assignment 2: The Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data

As mentioned in Week 5, this Major Assignment 2 is composed of four parts. For this part of your Major Assignment, you will complete Part 2: Role of the Researcher, along with other tasks that need to be completed for this Assignment.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Complete the coding for your first Scholars of Change video. You began coding this video in Week 5. Be sure to incorporate feedback and ideas from the Week 5 Discussion 1.

• Complete the coding for your second Scholars of Change video. You will use the same process as the first Scholars of Change video you coded. Be sure to incorporate feedback and ideas from this week's Discussion 2.

• Consider your role as a qualitative researcher and begin writing Part 2 of this Major Assignment.

Part 2: Role of the Researcher

• Review your analytic memos, field notes, etc., written during each aspect of the data collection process, and examine your role and experience and how that is shaping your experience (reflexivity).

• Describe the roles you are portraying in this research effort (i.e., a graduate student, classmate, interviewer, etc.).

• Identify any ethical issues that could or did arise during the data collection processes (i.e., these could include doing a study within one's own work environment, conflict of interest, or power differentials).

Discussion 1: What About Focus Groups?

Focus groups can provide rich, thick descriptions of experiences, attitudes, and opinions shared by a group of individuals who have in common a shared experience about the phenomena you are studying.

Review the resources in the course and online about the challenges, advantages, and disadvantages of using focus groups as part your research methods. Consider if, for your topic, whether a focus group would be a good choice for data collection.

For this Discussion, you will explore the differences between individual interviewing and focus groups.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review the Learning Resources related to coding, data analysis, and focus groups.

• Review the focus group media program found in the Learning Resources and consider how you might use a focus group in collecting data for the topic of your research.

Post your explanation of:

1. The difference between collecting data using individual interviews and a focus group (e.g., intent, selecting participants, conducting the interview or focus group)

2. Given the topic you are currently using for your research, would you consider using a focus group for your study? Why or why not?

Be sure to support your main post and response post with reference to the week's Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA style.

Discussion 2: Coding Scholar of Change Video #2

In Week 5, you selected one of the Scholars of Change videos to begin the coding process. For this Discussion, you will select another Scholars of Change video, different than the one you selected in Week 5, to begin coding not only your field notes but also the transcript of the video you downloaded.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review the chapters in the Saldaña text.

• Review the Introduction to Coding and From Content to Coding media programs in the Learning Resources.

• Refer back to your observational field notes from Weeks 1-4 Scholars of Change videos.

• From the remaining videos, choose a different Scholars of Change video and refer to your notes from your observation for this Discussion.

• Access the transcript you downloaded for the media program of the Scholars of Change video you selected for this Discussion.

• Begin to code the transcript and the observational field notes of the Scholar of Change video you chose. (Note: You will only need one or two codes for this Discussion, although more are acceptable.)

Post a brief description of the video you chose. Next, include an example of one or two codes and provide quotes from your notes or transcript to support your example. Finally, explain your reasoning for this coding.

Be sure to support your main post and response post with reference to the week's Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA style.