Qualitative Coding

What can you code?

• Fieldnotes, interviews, transcripts, documents, letters, external memos, video, still pictures, art, organizational features or structures

You can code data as you go (pure discovery) or by creating categories first (template analysis) (Crabtree & Miller, 1999)

Steps in Coding

• Multiple reading of the data transcript
• Ask yourself - what is the goal of the analysis?
• Develop and define codes
• Reduce codes to a manageable number
• Sort the codes into meaningful and related segments
• Connect the codes

Immersion and Crystallization

What gives your codes legitimacy?

• Depth of description
• Accuracy
• Intellectual honesty
• Rigor in the methods used
• Reflexivity
• Searching for alternate explanations

Coding Pitfalls

• Premature or delayed closure
• Lack of experience with coding OR with the research topic