Analysing Qualitative Data

In my feed back from Paula on module 2 one of her suggestions was to research and find literature on Analysing Data.

My surveys through ‘Monkey Survey’ are now all complete and collected and so is my narrative interviews from video recordings.

I decided to read through two research documents on how to analyse Qualitative date, links shown below, that were recommended to be by a college lecturing in a European university.  Time is of the essence and the few pages in the link were easy to read, understand and digest.  

It was made very clear that I had collected too much data.  My survey questions number 10. At this moment, I am considering choosing only two or three important and relevant  questions and answers to analyse.

I will have to consider choosing answers that;

• focus and justify my inquiry question
• compare and link to any quotes or important points from literature I’ve read
• link with relevant key points in my narrative interviews.

Quotes and generalising. 

I’ve read that ‘quotes’ should be chosen carefully to directly support an argument and that permission is needed by the owners, but they need to remain anonymous... I am currently seeking my interviewees permission to quote them as many are globally known teachers and performers, successful and influential people in the world of Salsa and Middle Eastern Dance. They are leaders, carving the paths of these evolving dance styles, listening to what students and spectators want..

By quoting people you avoid generalising as the responses are original to the individual's own perspective.

One to one narrative interviews

My narrative interviews number four in total, two interviews per dance style, each lasting approximately forty minutes.

My concerns were about the length and in some interviews I had gone off track with the questioning as the conversations became more and more interesting and revealing..

Little had I realised how much music influences these dance from a historical prospective.  Both music and dance are intwined within the evolution of this Art.

My most exciting interviews were musicians although my inquiry focuses on the dance styles, I will however need to emphasize on the influence of the music.

For the written data its a process of ‘Noticing, Collecting and Thinking about interesting things.  It’s a continuous circle of going from any one of those words as a starting point to jumping to another many times over.  The best thing for me would be to physically cut up pieces of written interesting points and put them in individual piles then disassembling the piles into smaller piles.

Analysis is a breaking up, separating, disassembling of research materials into pieces, parts, elements or units.  With facts broken down into manageable pieces the researcher sorts and sifts them, searching for types, classes, sequences, processes, patterns and wholes.  The aim is to assemble or reconstruct the data in a meaningful or comprehensible fashion (Jorgensen, 1989:107).

Coding like colours or words to represent an argument, facts or points is recommended.  As you notice interesting data, code it.  I can see that it may be a messy and confusing solution for me but I will physically lay out these piles as having pieces of paper lying around seems to help me in seeing things more clearly.

At first data may appear to be a mass of confusing unrelated, accounts.  But by studying the coding (often I code the same materials several times just after collecting them), the researcher begins to create order  (Charmaz, 1983:114)  

From this, mapping could be used as we practiced in modules 1 & 2 or putting it into a table.

I think I have to be aware of how much coding will influence my analysis, seems to be the beginning of another process that could pulls you deeper into your data.

I found these two links very useful. 

http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf

ftp://ftp.qualisresearch.com/pub/qda.pdf

I look forward to comments, suggestions and ideas.

Module 3 September 2012 Stage 1

Review feedback from my inquiry plan.  Updating our adviser Paula Nottingham on my tasks and objectives accomplished or delayed within my time line.

My exciting holiday to Cuba gave me the greatest opportunity to research Cuban Salsa and an opportunity to interview local dancers with my survey questions on the history of Cuban dance for the Salsa part for my proposed inquiry entitled ‘An exploration of ‘Fusion’ in Middle Eastern Dance and Salsa Dance today and its effect on the conservation of the Historical, Cultural and Origins of the Dance’
In my feed back for module two, Paula highlighted a significant point my title that I hadn’t even thought about and made remarks about how the reader would perceive this.  As we discussed what I wanted to achieve from this inquiry and started to break down the title I soon realised that I was giving the impression of  merging or combining the two dance styles of Middle Eastern and Salsa in fusion, but this was NOT my intention. My intention was to discover /explore ;

1. What other dance styles were being fused with Middle Eastern Dance
2. What other dance styles were being fused with Salsa Dance

The penny dropped! I will need to change the words slightly to clarify this further.  I realise that this inquiry could become a complex exploration primarily because of two very differing cultures and origins of the Dances.  
I could show some comparisons between the two dance styles but I will keep them to a minimum as this is not the main goal of the inquiry.

The element of surprise within my inquiry.
What has totally surprised and stunned me about Middle Eastern Dance  was how much I was drawn into the Politics of Egypt with the recent state of political change we’ve been hearing in the news.  Unfortunately with this country religion seems to be go hand in hand with the politics. In my research I have evidence reporting that Islamic fundamentalists intend to stop belly dancing.  They are saying Egyptian dancers should stop performing because dancing has always deemed to be ‘sinful’. This is having serious repercussions with European, UK and USA dancers making a living from belly dancing in Cairo.  Egyptian  men and women are included in the assaults and attacks.  This subject is very current and very relevant to my inquiry and I’m a little out of my depth reporting about the religious and political views on belly dancing.  I shall tread very cautiously and get advice along the way from our adviser Paula Nottingham
We are very fortunate in the UK, to be able to express our creativity and practice this Egyptian Art of Dance and other Dance styles without prejudice to a greater extent.
I’ve felt rather brave and joined in the conversations in chat forums about what I had discovered and read  in my research. I felt I had good reasoning and could justify my opinions. 
I was anxious about receiving nasty comments back to me. I was aware of my ethical behavior and was glad we had explored Ethics in module two. 

Surveys

I am on target with my survey questions and the distribution.  I am awaiting a couple more surveys to be returned to start the analysis process.  I have given myself time for analysing  because it is a qualitative survey.  
Unfortunately I will not be able to collect data from my focus group in which I was a member of an Egyptian Dance Troupe.  We will not be rehearsing because there are issues with long distance travel, financial issues and performance bookings were down to insignificant numbers.

Video interviews
I’ve been busy recording interviews this summer and captured the data required. 

Literature review
I’ve read three books this summer, two where about Carlos Acosta the Cuban male ballet dancer. I read both his biography and autobiography hoping it would give some reference to his experience with Cuban Salsa.  Unfortunately an insignificant amount was written but read about his remarkable and disruptive childhood and his relationships.
There are so many other interesting facets about this inquiry and I’m learning so much about both cultures and the bigger picture of it and we are all connected through dance.

My ongoing objectives/tasks
To read literature on analysing video recorded interviews
Continue reading literature on Middle Eastern and Salsa Dance
Re read Reader 7
Re read Module Handbook (keeping it handy)
Analyse findings

The difficult part is keeping focused on my inquiry and what I wish to gain from all this.

This inquiry is a huge task and I would welcome your comments, thoughts, ideas and advice on any part of the above.  

Life changing experiences

Paralympics London 2012

Hope you have all had a great summer break from BAPP or at least maybe had one or two thoughts and ideas about our professional inquiry..

What an exhilarating summer it has been for me.  I was extremely fortunate to be chosen to dance in the opening ceremony of the Paralympics.  An awesome but daunting experience rehearsing with all levels and abilities of dancers in groups of one hundred and fifty people at a time then eventually putting us together totalling six hundred dancers plus getting to dance in Stratford Stadium with an audience capacity of 80,000 and to dance for the Royal family, our Prime Minister and other VIP’s.  To be performing in the same show as Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Stephen King and Beverley Knight were just a few that I can mention in this mind blowing moment in time.  Seriously, who would have thought that a year ago, or ten years ago I would ever think of taking part in one of the biggest shows on this planet... 

Dancers and non dancers with disabilities from wheelchair users, partially sited to the deaf rehearsed with us. I had some experience, years ago, with wheelchair dancers in dance workshop but this experience blows every other previous experience into insignificance.  I was, however disappointed not to see more people with disabilities taking part in the show.  It was written in a report that there where only two hundred disabled dancers compared to one thousand able bodied dancers taking part.  

My most memorable learning experience from this event taught me how to plot a dance and choreography incorporating hundreds of dancers of all levels of abilities in one venue.  I was fortunate enough to be able to have a conversation about this with one of the Dance Captains. 

This type of mass gathering and shared experience produced great camaraderie amongst us and I can't tell you the fun we had in our changing areas on the opening night.. The Dance Captains and their dance assistance constantly thanked us and expressed gratitude for us volunteers. They made us feel quite special and did an excellent job of reminding us at every rehearsal

Looking at the whole experience what stood out most in my mind was the capacity and ability of will power, physical strength and attitude of mind we have as humans with the drive to accomplish such high levels of physical achievements.  How many times did we hear the words ‘super humans’ being reported or written about the Paralympians?   
The intense dedication and commitment to their sport, focus on their tasks and belief in themselves and their physical abilities are some of the attributes I would think.  Well I intend to focus on adopting some of those attitude to take me through my life tasks and challenges. It sounds corny but I’d be a fool not to.

Did any one have a life changing experience recently?