So I am deep in the process of coding at the moment. I was chatting to Dahlia today as I coded the results from my survey and she asked me if I could tell whose answers were whose. Truth is, Yes! I absolutely can. But I mixed them up before coding as much as possible to hopefully mix it up a little. I want to avoid having my impressions of the responders cloud my coding process. I know many of them well, or I know what they do, (i.e. a Lynn cop, his responses are pretty obvious!) and I wonder how that may effect my work. For example, I know that the cop's responses tend to be the most optimistic as he wants to protect and serve his community, so do I instinctively put his responses in my section of 'optimistic' themes and codes? or would they normally go somewhere else? I need to reflect solely on the words and the meaning behind them. Or perhaps knowing who they are is indeed important to know?
Another concern I am having is that i have certain opinions or impressions of words or phrases. Here's a good example: diverse. I automatically assumed that diverse is a GOOD thing, a positive. However, it is really just a description. I myself think of diversity as a positive, but maybe my responder does not. I then decided to set this word aside and make a new theme, that of diversity on its own, and not associate it with good or bad.
My survey data is quite interesting. There is a lot of conflicting opinions about Lynn, including within each responder. The opinions are very strong in both directions.
So on I go with the coding. I am finally feeling this come together. I still feel quite behind: I feel as if I was not sure what this project was really to look like until recently. It took a long time to get there, and I am not sure why it was so hard to get my head around it. Perhaps it was my high level of stress this semester thanks to work.
Laura--this is so exciting to read. Who said what absolutely matters I think. Each person has their own frame of reference and context. Considering this is absolutely part of the process as you know the participants and have a limited pool so you're likely to get very specific responses that represent a certain frame. All of the questions that are bubbling up are important to note, memo about and consider. Don't worry about being behind--give yourself over to the process!
ReplyDelete