How to code a document and create themes

Greetings friends. In this short little video, I want to talk about um the specifics of how to complete this assignment which is um coding a document

and then also creating themes and how that all ends up in um the the writing up of a particular theme. Um, as we've

mentioned before, this is an iterative process, which means you you start at one place, which is the collection of of data, an interview or observations or

any number of different tangible expressions of human behavior. And then

you, in this case, we make a transcript out of an interview. We will read through that interview and time and time again and start the beginning of the coding process.

And um as you will see in a few minutes, this is a proc the next step is in the process is to code that material and then also begin to start thinking about

making themes for out of those codes. So

I think the best way to do that is to go ahead and uh actually demonstrate that for you so you can see how that that um that actually can work. So what I have here is I have another interview, one

that we're not using here. have begun

the coding process and um you number of different ways you can go about this. Um

what I did was I just highlighted a section and up here at the top is a little um command that can give it a give that that section a color and I began to start coding this document. You

chunk it. You take a little section and uh you read it and highlight it if it expresses some idea or a thought or a

concept and then you give that a name that will indicate to you what that um what that uh particular section is all about. Now we said there's a number of

about. Now we said there's a number of different ways that you can do this. You

can um uh or there's different ways you can choose the name for that section.

you you can um take the you know the image that section evokes you know does it talk about maybe fear or anxiety or hope for the future or something like that that particular section you know

evokes some kind of idea in your imagination you actually can take a word out of that section that's called invivo coding um or there might be something in the literature that you have read before

a particular technical way of expressing something so what you'll do is you'll go through the section um so it's the document section by section and um I've I've stopped right here because I want

to draw attention to this particular paragraph and um talk about how you might code this section. In this section um a person um talks about the

philosophy of education that they have and my philosophy of education that every child should and will be able to learn and apply every lesson taught to the best of his or her ability. I will

accomplish this by always expecting and encouraging the best for my students.

And it goes on and on about imagining um imagining what this person might be like. Well, this doesn't look exactly

like. Well, this doesn't look exactly like a reason to become a teacher. But

actually, when you think about it, it's it it does because what this person is doing is imagining a future self. So, I

would go ahead and and highlight that and calling this just that. And that certainly is something

that. And that certainly is something that can motivate anybody to do anything is you know what what I will be like in the future. Again down here same thing

the future. Again down here same thing do my best I will. So imagine all of this is um is imagining what this person

will be like which can be a powerful a powerful um tool that they uh that they can choose. So um they'll start their

can choose. So um they'll start their careers as a doctor. I know my students should be bright with opportunities.

Hopefully that'll be the case. Um, and

look at right here. Leading by example.

I want to be a role model. Leading by

example, always maintain professionalism. You know, that's that's

professionalism. You know, that's that's that certainly is a theme that we could um uh uh or a code that we could use. By

the way, when you're using Word to um to put a code in this column to the left, you have to go, unfortunately, it's not all that user friendly, but you have to go all the way back to the last time you

entered something and you hit the return key a number of times until you get down to the place where the new code is going to

go. So, right here. And um I'm going to

go. So, right here. And um I'm going to call this desire for significance.

Oops. See, sorry, my typing figures aren't working all that well right now.

So, anyway, you go through all the documents and then you create these codes. The next thing you'll want to do

codes. The next thing you'll want to do is to start um bringing these codes together and and and beginning the

process of forming themes. Now um in the previous video we talked about how this actually looks. So you would start with

actually looks. So you would start with your initial read and dividing it coding it dividing into segments and coding it.

Uh then we're going to start collapsing these things into themes. And so we started with many pages of text and next thing we know we're down to segments

that we've identified and 30 to 40 codes reduced to 20 down to three to five themes. That's

the next process that we're going to go through. So, we've come here and um what

through. So, we've come here and um what I'm going to do is um just in the interest of time, I'm not going to go through an extensive process, but I want to show you how how

this can be done.

So, um, there's this one, uh, one group that already has begun this process, and I just want to take some of their

examples. And, um, this is the one that

examples. And, um, this is the one that I did for for you all. And here's the next one in the sequence. And so, here's here's some um

sequence. And so, here's here's some um some codes that they've suggested. So, one

way to do this is just to go ahead and copy those codes and go over into a word document

and um you can um just create a little table like this and use this as your working area

underneath. It's a little clunky, but I

underneath. It's a little clunky, but I think you'll get the idea here. I copied

and paste what that group said. And um then I began to start

said. And um then I began to start moving those into the table above. And as I moved them, I began to start thinking about how they might

group. So I put the positive influence

group. So I put the positive influence here, inspired by mother up there. Um, I

took these from the um um the uh document that I coded and

um so I think I'll kind of give this the theme of personal significance, childhood fascination. Um

I'm not sure what to call that. Um just

um kind of you know imagination for now and then go back to the to the documents and just continue

to take the codes and bring them on over into that document. Again, a lot of different ways

document. Again, a lot of different ways to do this.

Um, this is just one of them. So, you

would continue this process. Qualities drive for

process. Qualities drive for H. Looks like that could go under this

H. Looks like that could go under this section here. So, you get the

here. So, you get the idea. Understand hard times. probably

idea. Understand hard times. probably

need to go back to the document and find out uh exactly what um so so it looks like the reason I believe teaching

six. So this is you know an idea of you

six. So this is you know an idea of you know being personally qualified because they understand hard times and that certainly can be a

motivation to become a teacher. you want

to do something that you can be good at and if you think you're going to be good at something um because you've had experiences in that area that certainly would qualify. So you would keep doing

would qualify. So you would keep doing this um and develop themes. Now this is one way of doing this. There's a lot of different ways. Another way would be

different ways. Another way would be just to do the same thing except with sticky notes. I did this here, but you

sticky notes. I did this here, but you could just go ahead and um put all of these on a sticky notes. And this is the

the most common probably still is the most common way that people um do this kind of work is because it does allow you the chance, you know, to very easy

and quickly move things around. And here's our, you know, our

around. And here's our, you know, our theme of um you know, personal significance.

We're just moving all these around here, doing something important back over here. So, you get the idea of how this

here. So, you get the idea of how this works. You keep going through this

works. You keep going through this process, chunking, coding, and so on.

And at the very end, um it's in uh this class, we're doing this uh as a group project, but you could obviously do this by yourself. And when you are going to

by yourself. And when you are going to do your own project, you would do this part yourself as well. Then at the very end, what you'll do is bring it all together into one document. And um this

is one I think an outstanding example.

It's um it's it's a part of the uh resources now for 3.3. But this is a um very a good a good

3.3. But this is a um very a good a good example of how to actually write this up. And I want to draw attention to two

up. And I want to draw attention to two couple of the features of it. First, as

you notice, it's not just a collection of quotes sewn together with and Cheryl said and Donna said and Philip said. Now

you can see the uh the artistry of um of the writer right from the very beginning which qualitative research allows you to do. Notice the section starts with a

do. Notice the section starts with a fire can't happen without an initial spark. Inspiration of some sort was a

spark. Inspiration of some sort was a common theme that caused the spark that lit the fire for interviewees to become teachers. So this is a great hook for

teachers. So this is a great hook for this section. Um again it's not just a a

this section. Um again it's not just a a dry reporting of the data. begins to

engage the reader at a more than just a cognitive level, at an emotional level, which is perfectly appropriate for qualitative research. And then here

qualitative research. And then here referencing them, referencing the material, here's a quantitative statement made qualitatively rather than a chart. The author writes more than

a chart. The author writes more than half of the interviewees made reference to a role model, historical figure, parent or someone else. So

again, great opening paragraph. It's not

just a a resuscitation of facts, but actually, you know, begins to merge the researcher and the the artist at the same time and then begins to start

referencing. And here's the data. This

referencing. And here's the data. This

is just like a this is just like a chart in quantitative research. It's a chart that um instead of a um um a table, it's a series of of references to the data

that was used to support this particular assertion. answer is an and again it's

assertion. answer is an and again it's just a very short quote by an it could be longer uh Barbarie same thing just reflected on

um on the uh question and again no no quote here so you don't have to just always quote quote quote quote quote you can summarize in fact sometimes endless series of quotes are um rather fatiguing

to read so um here's a contrary statement what Emma um said no later rather earlier in life

later in life u later life earlier in life she wanted to be a career teacher.

So again you can um you just go through a document like this and um gives you an excellent example of how to write this

up. So you can see then how the process

up. So you can see then how the process works. We're starting from this initial

works. We're starting from this initial read through dividing into segments coding kind of looking for redundancy bringing

them together and collapsing them into three to five themes. For this

particular assignment, you're going to just go ahead and um write on one of those themes rich with a rich thick

description as we saw in our example.

Okay. Now, one final thing, uh, at the end of it all, um, you won't be doing that this in this chapter, but you will want to go back and reference the

literature that you found on the topic.

And here's a couple examples of what that might look like. This is mostly the kind you would write in chapter 4, but just to give you a heads up that you do circle back and either confirm or

challenge the findings that were in the literature. So, um, that's, um, about it

literature. So, um, that's, um, about it for this assignment. Um, the best best of luck to you as you as you um work on

this. And don't be afraid to shoot me an

this. And don't be afraid to shoot me an email if you have any questions.