Subject : Research

Instructor : Dr. Vivian

Presenter : Mohammed Raouf
Topic : Content or Document analysis

DATE : 4/1/2021
MONDAY
Content:
● DOCUMENT OR CONTENT ANALYSIS
● The following are some of the purposes of content analysis in educational research
● Types of documents
● Types of content Analysis
● Strengths and Limitations
● The process of analyzing
● Stages of Coding:
● EXAMPLE
● References
DOCUMENT OR CONTENT ANALYSIS

● The study of human communication.

● Document or content analysis is a form of qualitative research in which documents are
interpreted by the researcher to give voice and meaning around an assessment topic.
● Content or document analysis is a research method applied to written or visual materials for
the purpose of identifying specified characteristics of the material.
● Content analysis focuses on analyzing and interpreting recorded material to learn about human
behavior.
● The materials analyzed can be textbooks, newspapers, web pages, speeches, television
programs, advertisements, musical compositions, or any of a host of other types of documents.
● Content analysis usually begins with a question that the researcher believes can best be
answered by studying documents. For example, what was the employment situation like for
married women teachers in the early 20th century?
● Content analysis is widely used in education (Bowen, 2009).
The following are some of the purposes of content analysis in
educational research:
1. To identify bias, prejudice, or propaganda in textbooks. For example, a researcher might analyze
high school history texts in a particular school district to determine how often women are mentioned and
how much discussion is given in each mention.

2. To analyze types of errors in students’ writings. For example, you could look at students’ written
work to classify spelling or grammatical errors and their nature and frequency.

3. To describe prevailing practices. For example, you could identify the entrance requirements of Big
Ten universities by analyzing their bulletins.

4. To discover the level of difficulty of material in textbooks or other publications. For example, you
could ask, “What is the vocabulary level of the fourth-grade social studies textbooks in this district?”

5. To discover the relative importance of, or interest in, certain topics. For example, you might
analyze popular educational research textbooks to see the coverage given to qualitative research and
changes in that coverage over time (Allan et al., 1993).
Types of documents:
There are three primary types of documents (O’Leary, 2014):

● Public Records:
The official, ongoing records of an organization’s activities. Examples include student transcripts, mission
statements, annual reports, policy manuals, student handbooks, strategic plans, and syllabi.

● Personal Documents:
First-person accounts of an individual’s actions, experiences, and beliefs. Examples include calendars, e-
mails, scrapbooks, blogs, Facebook posts, duty logs, incident reports, reflections/journals, and newspapers.

● Physical Evidence:
Physical objects found within the study setting (often called artifacts). Examples include flyers, posters,
agendas, handbooks, and training materials.
Types of content Analysis:
 
1. Conceptual analysis: analyzing the existence and frequency of concepts in
human communication. And in content analysis there are two types of content that
can be analyzed:

A. Manifest content ( observable content ).

B. Latent content ( underlying meaning of the content ).

 
2. Relational analysis: analyzing the relationship of concepts in human
communication (Zoltan, 2007, 245).
 
Strengths and Limitations
Strengths are:
1. Unobtrusive
2. Low costs
3. Allow for quantitative\ qualitative research.
 
Limitations are:
1. Slow and time consuming (Krippendorf’s, 2004).
The process of analyzing:
1. First, we need to have a research question.

2. Identifying variables through:

A. Coding B. Categorizing C. Themes

Stages of Coding:
1. Identify codes ( label ).

2. Grouping codes to make categories. : words or phrases that have,

( similarities, differences, frequencies, and sequences ).
 
3. Grouping categories to develop themes ( findings ).(Strauss,1987).
EXAMPLE:
The study aimed at answering the following question:
Q. What happens to undergraduate students’ environmental practices when they are
engaged in repeated discussions on lifestyles and environmental problems?
 
Responses:
1. Thinking of and talking about our consumer patterns made me understand the relationship
between consumption and environmental impact. I have decided to buy to buy only those things
which are really necessary.
2. Discussions on our lifestyles have really raised our awareness about our own actions which
impact the environment. We had never experienced such discussions in our schools.
3. I never knew that waste was so closely linked with our lifestyles. I am trying to produce less
waste. I have also started talking about this issue with other people.
Group codes:
Talk about consumer patterns, discussion on lifestyles, repeated discussions, lack of awareness,
connection between waste and lifestyle and effort to raise awareness.

Category:
Discussions on lifestyles.
Commitment towards awareness about lifestyles and environmental problems.

Themes:
Awareness about the relationship between lifestyles and environment.
 
The results of the findings:
The data indicate the repeated discussions on individual lifestyles and their impact on the environment,
raised participant awareness about the environmental issues. They became aware of the connection
between consumption and waste production.
References:
● Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method.
Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40. doi:10.3316/QRJ0902027.

● O’Leary, Z. (2014). The essential guide to doing your research project (2nd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

● Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design (2nd ed.).

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

● Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative

research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

● Zoltan, O. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford.