Qoulitative researchers also use a variety of visual formats to display data, just as quantitativeresearchers use contingency tables, graphs, and charts in their data analysis (patton,1987; Miles and Huberman,1994)These visual data displays are considered a part of the data analysis process because the process of their development serves as an assist in conceptualization and theory development By summarizing what is found in the data, these displays can help charify conceptual categories and give further insight into relationships between categories. They also enable the researchers to see weakneeses in the analysis and thus suggest areas where additional data analysis is called for. In addition, of course, visual data displays are an effective adjunct to the narrative text in communicating results to a varity of audiences. Although these visual displays can take a variety of formats, there are generally two type. One is a figure that serves sa a visual mapping of some physical or conceptual terrain. The second is a table, chart, or matrix into which some text phrases, or other material are placed. Although the specific form that these visual displays can take is highly variable and very dependent on the specific data and concept, we can provide a few illustrations to offer a sense of their nature, function, and development.
One type of visual display is a context map, which deacribes in graphic form the physical or social setting that is the context of the observations. Qualitative researchers stress the centrality of the context in understanding people’s behavior; they are fond of pointing out that everything must be contextualized or situated. Positivist, quantitative research often collects and analyzes data without regard to the context. A surveyresearchers, for example, will collect data on a guestionnaire without regard to whether those attitudes might be important, different, or possibly irrelevant depending on the context in which the person is behaving. Many nonpositivists would refer to this as “decontextualized” data collection and analysis and would argue that those attitudes only take on a life (i.e., become important) in a particular context. Just as a percentage table informs the audience about some of the meaning in data, a context map provides meaning to the data by describing the context in which the behaviors occurred.