NVivo as an Aid towards Analytic Rigour when Researching in Non English Languages and Cultures

Dr Roger J. Vallance Ms Sophie M. Lee

University of Notre Dame Australia

Saisiyat Tribe

Amis Tribe

Overview Research Overview How using NVivo to analyse

Chinese transcripts Analytical and Methodological

advantages Supervision issues across cultural

contexts

Research Overview 1. Research Questions

RQ1: What are the views of classroom teachers of the policy reform in Aboriginal education? RQ2: What are the factors which affect individual teachers’ responses to change?RQ3: How are teachers’ perceptions expressed in their practice (reform or resistance)?

2. Mixed methods: survey & interview

3. Analysing the qualitative data

Working in NVivo 2.0The Chinese transcripts needed to be saved as Rich Text Format (rtf) filesThese rtf files were loaded into NVivoThe following electronic coding and analysis procedure was conducted in Chinese and was comparable to analysing text in English.

Working in NVivo 2.0

The rtf files display the Chinese characters with a high level of accuracy.

Files are browsed using the NVivo interface (in English)

Names of documents, document’s properties, nodes, attributes and cases---in English

Chinese doc

Advantages and Issues Practical

Time savingGrounded in the original languageReliability argument

Repeatability, consistency, in understanding the ‘sense’ of the text

Fewer steps or intermediaries Fewer interactions with colleagues, supervisor A sense of ‘private text’.

Analytical advantages Accurate analysis: Data analysis stayed close to the participants’ speech Holistic analysis: Nuanced analysis: Working in the participant’s mother tongue, i.e. ChineseValidity argument

Accurate AnalysisNot literal accuracyUsefulness of the metaphors and idiom of the language into a meaningful form in the second language

“Aboriginal people should be ‘self-heaviness’ to not rely on government…

Myths, allusions to traditional tales

Holistic AnalysisAnalysis in the light of cultural norms of discourse

One teacher said that the characteristic of Aboriginal people are mostly ‘ 樂天 知命’ .

The idiom refers to ‘optimistic personality’, to accept what happens to them in their lives. implies that there is a negative meaning, not responsible for their behaviours.

Humour and what is unsaid in the language

Nuanced AnalysisAppreciating the flavours and tonality of the conversationVoice of the participantRhythm of speech, use of images

The homogenising effects of translation, then transcription, then analysisNeeds to balance the nuance of metaphors with information conveyed

Some technical problems when working in NVivo

NV2 could not determine from the screen the text (Chinese) to search for.

Copy-and-pasted from fileSearch ‘nodes’

It looks like N7 will allow researchers to analyse, search and code data in any language, and a mixture of languages.

Reflections on using qualitative analysis software NVivo

Merriam (1998, p.202): ‘... reality is holistic, multidimensional, and ever-changing’, thus, keeping close to the text is part of the argument for validity. It is argued that the text should be as close as possible to the original interview events.

Fair presentation of interviewees’ accounts To report the frequency with which each

interviewee is quoted. To provide the Chinese original of each quotation

which displayed in Appendix.

Supervisor’s Role More of the same….

Listener Getting into the world view of your student

Supervisor has the chance to model learning Needs the researcher to explain the texts

Researcher as guide Trust in the relationship

What tells you that the student researcher is being honest?

Advantages for the supervisor That the supervisor knows there

are issues ensures that little is taken for granted

The personal rewards of coming to understand another world view

Real sense of co-production Consciousness Reflexivity

Amis traditional costume