The raw material for qualitative data analysis is often in the form of the field notes and in-depth interviews discussed in Chapter 9. However, qualitative data might also come in the from of diaries, narratives, video recordings, and other sorts of texts that are nonquantitative. In qualitative data analysis, the researcher is attempting to transform this raw data and extract some meaning from it, mostly without quantifying the data. We point out in Chapter 9 that field research can produce some quantitative data; when it does, this data is analyzed using the procedures discussed in Chapters 14 and 15
Goals of Qualitative Data Analysis
The goals of qualitative data analysis are both similar to and different from the goals of quantitative data analysis. Though the specific strategies used in qualitative data analysis are different from those used in quantitative data analysis, it is still, nonetheless, data analysis: Extracting meaning from observations that have been made. The goals of a qualitative research project might be the same as those discussed in Chapter 1, especially description, explanation, and evaluation. In addition, qualitative research often strives for understanding by generalizing beyond the data to more abstract and general concepts or theories. The ultimate end may, in some cases, be efforts to generalize the results to people, groups, or organizations beyond those observed. So, qualitative data analysis creates meaning in part by using the raw data to learn something more abstract and general. In this respect, qualitative and quantitative data analysis are similar.
Beyond the similarities, however, qualitative and quantitative approaches have obvious differences from one another. One difference is that qualitative research recognizes that abstraction and generalization are matters of degree and that they may be of less importance in some studies. A second difference is that qualitative research gives more stress to the effort to contextualize, to understand people, groups, and organizations within the full context or situation in which they act.