The challenges of analysing qualitative data

Professor Sue Clegg and Professor Jacqueline Stevenson

There is no text book way of analysing qualitative data and in this workshop we will try to share insights about how we make interpretations based on prior theoretical framings and from within different theoretical traditions.

Professor Stevenson will explore reading narrative data through a Bourdieusian lens. She will introduce some key ideas and then involve participants in working on either their own transcripts or on interviews she has undertaken. Professor Clegg will introduce some ideas from phenomenological approaches to data and then also invite participants to read some of their own data using this approach. Again for those who have not yet commenced collecting their own data, transcripts from Professor Clegg’s research will be available.

The workshop will draw together insights and debate the difficulties of representing qualitative analysis in writing about our research.

Participants are asked to bring some 3 or 4 copies of parts of transcripts that they would be willing to work with in small groups as part of the workshop. However, those new to research are warmly welcome to attend as copies of other transcripts will be available to drawn on.

Sue Clegg is emeritus Professor of Higher Educational Research at Leeds Metropolitan University. Her personal research includes close-to-practice research, often in collaboration with practitioners, and theoretical work for example in her work on the social and pedagogical significance of the gendering of information technology, her analyses of information technologies in learning and teaching, and her critique of the debate about the nature of ‘evidence-based’ practice. She is Editor of Teaching in Higher Education and serves on the Boards of Studies in Higher Education and Higher Education Quarterly.

Jacqueline Stevenson is Professor of Education at Leeds Metropolitan University. Her research is centred on issues around race, ethnicity, age and social class in relation to access to higher education and educational achievement, and on ethical practice in higher education. Recent work has focussed on the first year experience of religious students, the degree attainment of students from Black and minority ethnic groups, and research into both resilience and students’ future ‘possible selves’. Her research is primarily qualitative in focus and she has a particular interest in narrative research including story-telling and narrative inquiry.