ANALYZING AND INTERPRETING DATA ‘VARIABLE NAME ‘QUETIONS UKETEAC ‘Do you lite your teachers? NoTKE (What dott yu ike about your reachers? BORING What makes a teacher boring? INTEREST What mabes acass intesestiog? PROBLEMS Have you had any problems wth your teachers? WHATPROB: ‘What problems have you had with your teacherst THREAT Have you ever bean threatened by a teacher! PHYSTHRE Have you ever been physically threatened by a teacher! EMOTHRE > Have you ever bees emotionally f threatened bya teacher? QASSEAS ‘Do you think your classes are easy? EASCLASS Which of our clases isthe easiest? Figure 6.1. Vatiable names and associated quoctions for the Black ‘Knight High School student survey codebook. ‘questions (such as the precoded questions about gender, age, and number of "no grades" or filing marks a student received in the previous semester) and open-ended ques- tions with short answers to assessthe feelings that American Indian high school students had about school. The re- searchers first created variable names for each open-ended question, as indicated in Figure 6.1. Each of these variable names was limited to cight characters, given the specifica tions of the software (SPSS, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) used to analyze these data. For example, one ‘of the questions was, "How many ‘NG’ grades did you receive last semester?” The variable name was “NUMBNG," which does not make much sense unless the reader or researcher knows that “NG” stood for “No Grade,” an evaluation that was given to students who, despite their poor or even failing performance, were pitied by their teacher. Students in the high school, however, called them “Navajo Grades,” noting that white students never received. them. An appendix to the general codebook should tell the CREATING A CODEBOOK reader which specific questions on the survey instrument are associated with which variable name, as well as provide explanatory information such as the above, so that years later, or in the hands of another researcher who did not collect the original data, the information would still make sense, Next, the researchers listed the codes for the closed- ended (precoded) questions, They then did a contentanaly- sis to determine appropriate categories and associated codes for the answers to the open-ended questions, and added them to the codebook (see Figure 6.2). Coders coded information from the completed survey instruments onto coding sheets first, after which the lead researcher recoded ‘a sample of the surveys to check on the accuracy of the coding, Once the accuracy check was done, the data were entered into a computer for tallying and statistical analysis. (Codebooks are im even if the researchers count- ing tallies by hand, Too many researchers have piles of old data, all well-coded but undecipherable because the re- searcher cannot remember what the codes stand for and has Jost the all-important key: the codebook. Ethnographers who are using computers for their data entry and manipulations—and most ethnographers now ‘use computers for virtually all but the most simple of ‘studies—should decide on the software they will use and Jearn its characteristics and requirements first—before they. create the codebook. This is because different software packages require different setups and different kinds of input. Regardless of the software used, the codebooks for {instruments such as surveys, standardized interviews, and «questionnaires should be ordered more or less according to the question order on the instrument, When the codebook isconstructed, its a good idea to leave space hereand there for the addition of variables and codes, just in case the process of analysis generates new options that the re- searcher feels are important to consider. Cross Reference: ‘See Book 2 fore discussion cof content analysis of texts ‘and documents, a7Figure 6.2. Codebook forthe Black Knight High School student survey, Fal 1981. data in copies kept separate fiom each other. Ethnographers should verify a sample of both the codingand the data entry for accuracy before continuing with data manipulations. oo ANALYZING AND INTERPRETING DATA CREATING 4 GopEBOOK ——— Cohen __WraleName _ Gonilora ons ‘Colm able Nae Castor Gide 3 ‘DF ier i a Whatprob 12 —_Tldorthov potions 4 Gender 1 Teal, 2efemale 2achare te 6 ‘Grade 2 enternumber os tae Sec 78 Yor 3 rer maior ipa ane ave unpleasa. jes 10 ae 4 enter ane [they ene study drt care " NunbNC 5 rer number (rfirnsealedharices wih ema sade 2 Hep 6 tyes: 2-0, obtain Jephyneal contact ht, gra, dock» bene 4 Mbit 7 Injen; Onblank eotier tas otk 8 Ofek wo much ‘piv yu te cut Daedsorganized O-roanawer bale O3-unvatabie 2 teat 13 tyes Z=no, Osbiank Deon ster, dont care B Phystire 14 teyes: Penn: Oni D5epaor appearance * mothe 15 tyes 2; O-blank (too cary 0 challenge % Caseas 16 isyeg 20; stank Omura 1627 aclss 7 Otel (mother reading Oomaniredy dort oke oleinish {W-compai oo uch tomatoes {Yomopat tad Se sints Ssebund Lasminerpreable GbellS sates {Sto mich work fete ‘7-Spanith cteacher are good Oseoiher (blank no answer Daevocatonsadication 1617 Borin 9 tetale iGo mach TOosochery teach something we abesdy had ‘estate ses ‘each a boning subject Tat sewn they dor’ get kid enced ys i3-Pe Osten fey do nothing Tenor Dem yt bt themmsves 1Sracence A>don' prt loo tech omar Dino He tno tet en Figure 6.2. Gontnwod | ‘We think itis a good idea to code all numierical data—or ‘data whose codes are numeric—on coding sheets before they imi ieee 10 are entered into a computer. In fact, many surveys are pre- ‘coded and the survey responsesare codedby theinterviewer or the respondent ofthe survey is self-administered. Ibis usu- ally a good idea not to do direct entry from the instruments ‘or field data themselves, because mistakes in coding are more difficult olocate. The coding sheets also can bea valu- able backup if disks or data tapes are destroyed or ost, 50 20 Problem 11 Tepes or blank they should be saved with the codebook and other valuableANALYZING AND INTERPRETING DATA USING A COMPUTER FOR CODING OF TEXT DATA, Computers have made the lives of ethnographers immeas- turably easier and often cheaper. Inthe following box, we ist some of the principal ways in which computers can assist in the organization and analysis of text data. CREATING A CODRROOK Users of computer programs for the analysis of text data need to decide whether itis worthwhile to use a computer ‘program for the management of text data, and which kind of program they will find most useful. Four important decisions are the following: ‘= How anvch data ae Hhly tobe collected. tis probably not ‘worthwbileto use a computer to code fewer than 100 pager of text data becanae ofthe ime required to code it 15 Whethercodes canbe ener directly into the tex or whether ‘ete ale coded ater. Enesng codesdiccty int the teat a0 tha they can be found later using search commande re- _gsires that the coding system be folly developed in advance. ering thecodes ater provides the titude for allowing the final coding syste to evolve from the data. f= Whether qualitative and quamitative dats shoul be inte {tod inthe se dataset. Same sofare programs, such os [NUDAST, allow resurcers to integrate SPSS files with text files and convert mumercal coding of tert ta to SPS fies For researchers who azeinterexted in cllectng diferent Kinds ‘of date on the same top, these programs can be very help. {= Whether audioviml dat wil be incoeporated into the da sevand coded, Until recently it was not posible to combine a2 ANALYZING AND, INTERPRETING DATA suuio and visual data with tex daa ia desiop or laptop computer hardware sotware cofiguatens. Now, new pro= ‘rama enable esearchersto code andio and video dats onthe screen and to search text aco, and vido ditabases simlta- neoasly for codedsegments, Like ext-nlycompater softwar, they organize the segments into a single ile tht eeserchers can then san, organize, analyze, and interpret. {tis important for novice ethnographers to remember that computers alone do not analyze or even code data, ‘They are designed only tohelp to expedite these operations when ;sare working with large bodies of text and other kinds af data. The process of coding, retrieving, and subsequently mulling aver and making sense of data re- mains a laborious process completely controlled by re- searchers. Even if a computer is used, researchers still must ¢g0 through the process of punching each code into the data fon the computer as they read through their interviews, fieldnotes, audio., and videotapes. Computers are merely handy and exiremely fast labeling and retrieval tools. Re- searchers also must remember that they alone can tell oF program the computer to retrieve and count datain specific ‘ways the machines do not doit automatically. Fortunately, a number of computer programs now exist that make this process relatively straightforward —always, of course, un- der the direction of the researcher! One early discussion of such computer progtams can be found in Renata Tesch’s chapter in LeCompte and Preissle’s (1993) text, Ethriogra hy and Qualitative Design in Educational Research. A thor- ‘ough review of computer programs for analysis of qualita- tive data as well as good suggestions for ways of proceeding ‘with dats analysis can be found in Weiteman and Miles's (1994) publication titled Computer Program for Qualitative Data Analysis, CREATING 4 CODEBOOK ‘SUMMARY In this chapter, we have discussed how researchers use coding systems to create andl differentiate the taxonomies and categories of items they have identified in their dats, as ‘wells to count the number of such items in each category. ‘Such a process, whether it yields actual frequency counts or is limited to more subjective crestion of relative weights, helps to establish the variance within the cultural scene under study. This process is critical to outlining the com- plete cultural portrait that isthe ultimate goal ofan ethnog- rapher’s work. In thenext chapter, we talk about how coded data are assembled to create cultural patterns and struc- tures. 93