I am ready to use real data

Reflections on Tuesday 7/30

While we were working in ATLAS as a group, I was feeling excited and frustrated--wishing I had real data, but, I was still glad to have the opportunity to walk through coding in ATLAS.ti.  I realize that there are multiple ways to complete the same task (now) and I have a fairly positive outlook on using ATLAS.ti for the remainder of my program.  I was surprised at how comfortable I was with working with memos and coding, even with merging codes and creating families.  It seems as if I have learned more than I thought (and actually remembered it) from advanced qualitative methods last semester.  The reason that I say ‘fairly positive’ is because I plan on using ATLAS.ti from this point on in my studies, and, although I have not heard anything ‘negative’ (I am not sure if that is the word I want to use, but for now, I am not sure what word fits better) from my committee, especially my chair, I hope they will be on board and not become frustrated when I want to show work.  This is why the final project of this course is very important and beneficial to me, because it can be a working draft of what I will present in my comprehensive questions in order to provide my rationale for using this CAQDAS tool.

 Thoughts on my own upcoming projects for the course

I have decided to go deeper into ATLAS.ti.  Currently, I am finding articles and putting them into Mendeley.  For my second skillbuilder, I plan to take those pdf files, and ‘code’ them for my literature review.  I will revisit Paulus, Lester, Dempster (2013) chapter 4, and I will also revisit Boote & Beile (2005) in order to guide what I write, and I would like to read a little of  Saldana’s (2013) book on coding. 

Coding is still a mystery to me.  I have not had any data to code, save for a few exercises in my intro to qualitative research.  I realize there is no one way to code, and I also have learned that different methodologies, such as case study or ethnography, use different coding methods.  I am interested in ethnography, and I need to find pieces that relate to coding data according using ethnographic methods.  If anyone has a suggestion where to start, or a particular article or author, I would be very appreciative of any suggestions.

 

Using Video Data

I plan on using audio recorded interviews as the main source of data for my dissertation, but I was thinking of how much richer my interviews would be if I videotaped them.  I would like to use video, but as in Paulus, Lester, & Dempster (2013) it is brought up that seeking “ethical approval” is sometimes difficult.  I agree.  I have only written one IRB thus far, and, although I did not need many corrections, I found it challenging.  I support examining your personal research methods, and I am more than willing to be transparent when discussing every aspect of my intentions to the ethics board, but I do not feel experienced enough to write a compelling argument as to why to use video rather than audio.  I do believe that audio is very rich, because you can hear tone, intonation, breaths, sighs, even “filler” words, such as “um”, or “like”, however, I also feel that body language is equally important when interviewing a person. 

I thought I would try to respond to reflexive practice 8.1 on p. 5, ch. 8 in Paulus, Lester, & Dempster:

The practice is in red, and my response is in purple

 

“Banks (2007) suggested that visual data could be perceived by participants as a tool for surveillance and control, particularly for participants living and working in potentially sensitive contexts. Once this type of data has been collected, how would you protect your participants’ identities? Post a response in your blog.”

There are a few ways I can think of how to protect identity in a video, but two of them require special software (I believe) and the knowledge of that software.  The researcher could blur the faces of the participants (you see this often on television) in order to protect identity.  The researcher could also change the voice of the participant if that were an option. These could be done after the transcription and prior to any publication, so the researcher could revisit the video during analyisis. If the researcher did not have access to the software or no knowledge on how to use it, the researcher could ask the person to wear props, such as sunglasses or hats, but then, that would make the point of video moot for the researcher when analyzing the data. One benefit of video data is seeing facial expressions, and those items would not allow the researcher to see them. 

This is where I am at a loss—how do you even write a rationale for using video data?  I know it is done often, but how do researchers argue for it, when it seems so easy for an ethical reviewer to say, “You can obtain similar data on audio in order to meet the requirements of your study.”  I would like to try and look this up.  It is possible I will do it between the end of this session and the beginning of fall.  I believe that video interviews for my dissertation would be rich—richer than audio,  of course, and I would like to see how that language is used in an IRB.