Data analysis is an important and integral part of the process of qualitative research. The data that we collect for qualitative research in general is called qualitative data and the analysis process that is aimed at understanding and making meaning of qualitative data is called qualitative data analysis in this presentation. I would like to briefly introduce the general process of qualitative data analysis. And so this is basically an introduction to the to the process of qualitative data analysis so first of all let us begin with what actually is qualitative data qualitative data generally includes textual or audio visual data so in contrast to in comparison to quantitative data which is generally in the form of numbers or quantities qualitative data is in the form of text or audio or it is in the form of audio or visual data the the data in qualitative studies is generally extensive mainly because we know that the written text or the verbal information is generally in in in the the amount that we get through is generally more than numbers which is which actually give more discrete form of data then the the process of data analysis generally involves transcription uh translation transformation organization and searching for relevant information labeling or coding and interpretation transcription actually is the that because in many cases data in qualitative. Studies is in is recorded is audio so that needs to be transcribed into textual form or into written language in some cases the information that we get especially using primary sources of data will be might be in one language and we need to write the report in another language and so for that in some cases translation is also important then. Transformation actually is um the arrangement or the reorganization of data into a form. That is more open to interpretation into analysis so the transformation of data to make it more manageable in order to analyze it organization of the data in line with our research objective.

The research questions is an important aspect of the data analysis process then searching for relevant information inside the big or extensive data that we have collected through our sources and then labeling or coding which is actually categorizing the textual data the extensive data keeping in view over research objectives and then interpretation or meaning making that actually means critically reading the data and analyzing the data and making it meaningful in terms of responding to all research questions and objectives. And so you can see that this is quite an interesting but at the same time a complex process that is involved in qualitative data analysis so we also will have briefly have a look at some of the main sources of qualitative data so generally qualitative data in most qualitative research studies the the data comes through observational notes because in a majority of pure qualitative studies. That happen in naturalistic environments. Observation is one of the main sources of data and then diary or journal. Entries is another very important source of qualitative. Data interview tapes or transcripts of the interviews is another important source of qualitative data then audio visual records also is also in in some qualitative studies. This is also an important source of qualitative data besides this because most qualitative data is actually based on written text or that is actually in language form so written documents that include books in newspapers for example magazines or registers or records or research papers or other documents um actually depending on the the kind of study or the kind of research objectives that we have uh there will be a variety of in many cases a variety of written documents and so written documents or documents in text form will be an important source of qualitative data. And so this is these are like the primary very important sources of qualitative data. There could be other sources of qualitative data as well.

Let me move on to the last part of the presentation and some of the important qualitative data methods include the following the first one which is very commonly used. It's called thematic analysis and thematic analysis. The very name suggests is actually the searching for themes inside the qualitative data so searching and evaluating themes and patterns within qualitative. Data is called thematic analysis and in many a qualitative studies generally especially in interview based studies the process of analysis in involved searching for themes inside the text or inside the interview transcripts the second one is content analysis which is actually analysis of textual visual contents and the content analysis actually is a bit. There is a bit of quantification in this one. Because the content is generally analyzed for finding patterns and for finding for finding chunks of of language or in some cases words or sentences and there is a bit of counting involved in the content analysis and so therefore content analysis is an important and a very useful method of data collection of data analysis in qualitative studies then narrative analysis as the very name suggests is basically analysis of narratives or stories so narrative analysis is is like a whole research method in qualitative studies where stories of individuals or groups are recorded and then they are actually analyzed in the light of research objectives and research questions in order to get themes and meanings out of it then discourse analysis is basically the analysis of language written or verbal language within its social context and so each of these need further explanation in detail. So i'll have maybe i'll i'll have further exp individual lectures on these but at the moment. This course analysis is actually the analysis of the written language with reference to the social context in which the language has been used then interpretive phenomenological analysis is actually the interpretation of the lived personal experiences of individual these experiences especially are experiences that are intense personal psychological experiences of individuals who have gone through a particular situation or who have experienced certain certain situation in the social context or in actually the intense lived experiences so phenomenological um analysis interpreter phenomenological analysis is another very important qualitative data analysis method.

And actually it again. It is a whole research method inside the qualitative research paradigm and then the grounded theory approach. Uh the grounded. Theory approach is actually the analysis of data uh in order to develop theory so the development of of theory based on an analysis of the primary data in the groundwater theory approach to qualitative data analysis or to qualitatively search. The researcher generally does not come with preconceived hypotheses or ideas and they do not test theories through data but on the contrary the data actually is analyzed in order to develop a theory and because the theory that we get is uh actually grounded in the in the in the primary data that we have collected as researchers therefore this approach is called grounded theory. So as you can see qualitative data analysis is actually the process of analyzing qualitative data. It is generally textual data or visual data. The process involves reading that actually transcribing or first of all collecting the data. Then transcribing and translation of the data is involved in the process. Once that is done the next process is reading and re-reading around the data analyzing the data and making meaning out of the data searching for themes searching the contents analyzing the contents or analyzing the stories or discourses or experiences of individuals and groups in detail in order to get answers in the response to our research questions and in order to achieve our research objective.