Analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data : a mixed methods approach

Book

Analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data : a mixed methods approach / Margaret D. LeCompte and Jean J. Schensul.

LeCompte, Margaret Diane, (author.). Schensul, Jean J., (author.).

Summary:

Treating analysis as both a mechanical and a cognitive process, Book 5 begins by describing why analysis and interpretation of data are necessary. In the first two chapters the book points out the importance of beginning ethnographic analysis in the field, during the earliest stages of data collection, and how to move between induction and deduction, the concrete and the abstract, in a process informed by an emerging and increasingly refined conceptual model. The middle section tackles the challenge of transforming huge piles of text, audio, and visual information into an ethnographic whole through generic and specific coding and quantification of qualitative data, using multiple extended examples. Chapters show how to use computers in analysis of qualitative data and ways to integrate the results of quantitative and qualitative data into a comprehensive picture of a complex whole. Chapter 9 presents a rare and comprehensive description of the statistics regularly used by ethnographers to analyze ethnographic surveys. Chapters 10 and 11 show how researchers create and then fine-tune preliminary results into an integrated whole, display them for multiple audiences, and write them up. The final chapter illustrates how ethnographers can share the meaning of results with local communities and constituents and with other professional researchers. --Publisher website.

Record details

ISBN: 9780759122079
ISBN: 0759122075
ISBN: 9780759122086
ISBN: 0759122083
Physical Description: xx, 338 pages : illustrations, charts ; 23 cm.
Edition: Second edition.
Publisher: Lanham, Maryland ; AltaMira Press, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2013]
Copyright: © 2013

Content descriptions

General Note:: Previous title: Analyzing and interpreting ethnographic data.
Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-320) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Why are analysis and interpretation necessary? -- Analysis in the field -- Tidying up, cataloging, and creating data inventories -- Recursivity, induction and deduction: moving between levels of abstraction -- Ways to begin analysis -- Specific coding and initial quantification -- Coding and creating qualitative and quantitative codebooks -- Managing qualitative and quantitative data with computers -- Analyzing ethnographically based survey data -- Creating preliminary results: putting parts together -- Fine-tuning results and beginning the write-up -- Creating interpretations.