A particular challenge I am facing with my dissertation proposal is how to think about the qualitative piece of my proposed research. It is, most precisely, a secondary qualitative analysis of existing open-ended interview data. Most child development and family science grad programs likely have to fight for whatever exposure to qualitative research they can; A specific academic focus on secondary qualitative research, then, probably takes a back seat to other important topics.
But I have come to believe that it is essential to conceptualize the type of work I am doing as "secondary analysis," and to observe guidelines and provide rationales for this kind of research. Some helpful resources I have come across:
Radina, M. E., & Downs, K. J. M. (2004). Asking new questions of existing qualitative data. In V. L. Bengtson et al. (Eds.) Sourcebook of family theory and research (pp. 63-64)
Above chapter's on-line examples and extensions here (pdf), and annotated bibliography here (pdf)
One way to approach qualitative data in a new way is to apply a case-analysis to previously analyzed theme/variable-centered data, or a theme analysis to previously case-analyzed data--or a combination case-theme approach to answer new questions of existing qualitative data. Two articles (both from health/nursing fields) I have found helpful:
Ayres, L., Kavanaugh, K., & Knafl, K. A. (2003). Within-case and across-case approaches to qualitative data analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 13, 871-883.
Ayres, L. (2000). Narratives of family caregiving: Four story types. Research in Nursing and Health, 23, 359-371.
For the future: I wonder if, with the increased use of computer qualitative software, more qualitative researchers will try to digitally archive their vast amounts of rich qualitative data such that other researchers can perform secondary analyses. I know the thought of doing this seems antithetical in some respects to what qualitative research is all about. Just a random thought...
Posted by perry032 at February 5, 2005 11:59 AM | TrackBack