Underlying thematic analysis are a few fundamental human cognitive processes, such as categorizing, prototyping and metaphorical mapping. By unpacking these basic processes of human cognition, this paper hopes to provide a cognitive basis for thematic analysis as a foundational method in data analysis for qualitative research. In particular, it…

The field of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is witnessing a heated debate on which one of the QCA's main solution types should be at the center of substantive interpretation. This article argues that the different QCA solutions have complementary strengths. Therefore, researchers should interpret the three solution types in an integrated…

Purpose: Reflexivity involves critical reflection by the qualitative researcher as to the influence of the researcher's culture, history and belief on the conduct and outcome of the research. It is often seen as a practice exercised in the analysis of results in order to attempt to objectify the research. The purpose of this paper is to argue that…

Purpose: This paper aims to consider ways to visually model data generated by qualitative case studies, pointing out a need for visualizations that depict both synchronic relations across representations and how those relations change diachronically. To develop an appropriate modeling approach, the paper critically examines Max Boisot's I-Space…

What do we do with emotion in biographical research: is it an end in itself, a symptom to be explained, a thread to be pulled? This paper presents an experiment in methodology within a field of biographical methods that involved revisiting a single qualitative interview after the elapse of thirty years. The interview with 22 year old Stacey was…

Consultee-Centered Consultation (CCC) is built upon the use of a constructivist, interactive approach to support conceptual change in consultees. Constructivism is foundational in ethnographic traditions as well and it focuses on understanding socially constructed meaning-making in cultural groups. Given the importance of constructivism in both…

This study aims to compare the analytical processes involved in two theorizing approaches applied to secondary qualitative data. To this end, the two authors individually analyzed the same raw material, one using the grounded theory approach and the other using the general inductive approach. Our comparison of these processes brought out the…

Qualitative coding procedures emanating from grounded theory were limited by technologies of the 1960s: colored pens, scissors, and index cards. Today, electronic documents can be flexibly stored, retrieved, and cross-referenced using qualitative data analysis (QDA) software. We argue the oft-cited grounded theory framework poorly fits many…

Qualitative data analysis (QDA) is often depicted as a linear process that employs an organised structure to derive themes inductively or deductively. However, I realised the "messiness" of the process during my doctoral studies on primary teachers' use of digital technologies in ESL classrooms in Maldivian schools. My own experience…

The purpose of this article is to further the methodological cross-fertilization between qualitative social science researchers and psychoanalytic theoreticians by outlining and demonstrating a method of intertextual psychoanalytic-intersubjective analysis (IPIA) in qualitative research. The authors believe that such a bridge between the…

The use of codebooks to categorise qualitative data and to increase consistency in coding between multiple researchers is a well-established strategy in qualitative research. However, due to the focus on team-based research projects, the possibilities for the use of codebooks by individual researchers are rarely discussed. With the aim of adding…

Qualitative data analysis has been criticised for a lack of credibility over recent years when vagueness has been afforded to the reporting of how findings are attained. In response, there has been a growing body of literature emphasising a need to detail methods of qualitative data analysis. This paper adds to this body of knowledge by presenting…

A reproducible analysis is one in which an independent entity, using the same data and the same statistical code, would obtain the exact same result as the previous analyst. Reproducible analyses utilize script-based analyses and open data to aid in the reproduction of the analysis. A reproducible analysis does not ensure the same results are…

This paper reports on the challenges faced by two researchers during data collection and translation of data and analysis in two public sector universities in Pakistan. Data collection from each institute involved different procedures and a different set of issues, including negotiating access with gatekeepers and participants, dealing with…

As universities are undergoing transformations produced by trends towards marketisation, massification, new public management, and 'third mission' of socio-economic impact, higher education (HE) researchers are increasingly concerned with the implications of the HE sector change on academic practice, professional identities, and even wellbeing.…