I am really glad to be able to write more technical threads on Twitter in 2020. Technical in the sense that they pertain to stuff I have scientific and technical expertise on. I love writing about academic writing, organization and time management, research planning and execution, but writing about research methods, and in particular, qualitative research methods, is very much my jam.
I recently came across Dr. Sally Thorne (The University of British Columbia)’s editorial in the journal Nursing Inquiry Beyond theming: Making qualitative studies matter. As many of you may know, my Grandma on my Mom’s side was a nurse and I really admired her, and I also have great friends who are scholars in the nursing field. I regularly read nursing journals particularly for qualitative research insight. Thus I was fascinated with Dr. Thorne’s editorial as it touched on topics I wanted to discuss myself.
Dr. Thorne’s editorial started a great conversation with two authors who I respect a lot and who I believe are now canonical in thematic analysis: Dr. Virginia (Ginny) Braun, and Dr. Victoria Clarke. You should read the entire thread to read their responses to concerns about Dr. Thorne’s conclusion. Dr. Clarke and Dr. Braun expressed a very legitimate worry that badly-done and/or badly-understood thematic analysis may lead to its delegitimation. I do enjoy, use and respect the version of thematic analysis that Clarke and Braun do, and I understand this worry. Thorne, in her Twitter response to their concerns, expressed respect towards the thematic analysis that Braun and Clarke espouse, and I agree with her, though I also share the same concern as Braun and Clarke to some extent.
Thematic analysis, well done, is a legitimate qualitative research strategy.
My discussion of Thorne’s editorial is below.
I teach my students and research assistants how to do coding and theming. I use Johnny Saldaña’s work on coding https://t.co/c6yHJc4czq and Ryan and Bernard on themes https://t.co/j72gEjDIMS and Braun and Clarke on thematic analysis https://t.co/mCaVRYWDcF
And herein is the rub
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 1, 2020
Herein lies the rub: a number of qualitative scholars and educators fail to teach the analytical part of doing qualitative research. In her editorial, Thorne aptly points to the fact that we teach how to obtain qualitative data on the field, textually, but then we need to teach HOW TO DO ANALYSIS. Dropping categories and themes, as Thorne (2020) rightfully says, and bits and pieces of textual evidence to support our writing DOES NOT MEAN YOU’RE DOING ANALYSIS.
We need to go further, Thorne says, and I agree.
TEACH ANALYTICAL WRITING.
One reason why I am so insistent on teaching my students how to do Description and Analysis https://t.co/oxz8uIY3Pd and why they should go beyond merely describing is my frustration with how qualitative methods are sometimes taught (not rigorously enough). https://t.co/8iTqEdVWk9
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 1, 2020
Thorne says, and I quote:
“for a qualitative product to be worthy of publication, I believe that it must demonstrate that it extends beyond naming categories and themes and reporting on patterns.”
YES.
We can and must show patterns, trajectories, developments, insights.
Quoting Thorne again:
“Telling your reader that you found three themes and fourteen categories and then going on to briefly describe them and provide a text excerpt example of each is hopelessly insufficient.”
Yes, this is certainly not enough to add to our understanding and the literature. You need ANALYSIS.
Writing Field Notes and Using Them to Prompt Scholarly Writing – Raul Pacheco-Vega, 2019 https://t.co/OPHZEpjzfE
One recommendation: as you write your field notes, remember to capture themes, codes AND patterns/trajectories.
</end thread>
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 1, 2020
A really fantastic discussion on stuff that I have been droning about for ages. If you’re interested in qualitative methods, you should read this thread and the responses I got.
Thank you for sharing this blog. It has been a great starting point to thematic analysis and helped me to make some sense of the Braun/Clarke and Strauss world.