Introduction
Qualitative data are in the form of next, written words, phrases, or symbols describing or representing people, actions, and events in social life. Except for the occasional content analysis study, qualitative researchers rarely use statistical analysis. This does not mean that qualitative data analysis is based on speculation or on vague impressions. It can be systematic and logically rigorous, although in a different way form quantitative or statistical analysis.
In the past, few qualitative researchers explained how they analyzed data. In fact, a common criticism of qualitative research was that data analysis was not made explicit or open to inspection. Qualitative data analysis has moved to a more explicit and systematic step-by-step approach. Nevertheless, no single qualitative data analysis approach is widely accepted. In this chapter, you will learn about a few qualitative analysis techniques. Some of the approaches are used more often in historical-comparative research and some more in field research.