What is coding in qualitative research?

A code is a label that describes the content of a piece of text. For example, in the sentence:
“Pigeons attacked me and stole my sandwich.”
You could use “pigeons” as a code. This code simply describes that the sentence involves pigeons.
So, building onto this, qualitative data coding is the process of creating and assigning codes to categorize
data extracts. You’ll then use these codes later down the road to derive themes and patterns for your
qualitative data analysis.

 Coding is the process of labeling and organizing your qualitative data to identify different
themes and the relationships between them.

For example : When coding customer feedback, you assign labels to words or phrases that represent
important (and recurring) themes in each response. These labels can be words, phrases, or numbers.
Use words or short phrases, since they’re easier to remember, skim, and organize.

 Coding qualitative research to find common themes and concepts is part of thematic analysis.
Thematic analysis extracts themes from text by analyzing the word and sentence structure.

What is qualitative data analysis?

 Qualitative data analysis is the process of examining and interpreting qualitative data to
understand what it represents.
 Qualitative data is defined as any non-numerical and unstructured data; when looking at
customer feedback, qualitative data usually refers to any verbatim or text-based feedback such
as reviews, open-ended responses in surveys, complaints, chat messages, customer interviews,
case notes or social media posts.

Why is it important to code qualitative data?

 Coding qualitative data makes it easier to interpret customer feedback. Assigning codes to
words and phrases in each response helps capture what the response is about which, in turn,
helps you better analyze and summarize the results of the entire survey.
 Researchers use coding and other qualitative data analysis processes to help them make data-
driven decisions based on customer feedback. When you use coding to analyze your customer
feedback, you can quantify the common themes in customer language. This makes it easier to
accurately interpret and analyze customer satisfaction.

What is thematic coding?

 Thematic coding, also called thematic analysis, is a type of qualitative data analysis that finds
themes in text by analyzing the meaning of words and sentence structure.
 When you use thematic coding to analyze customer feedback for example, you can learn which
themes are most frequent in feedback. This helps you understand what drives customer
satisfaction in an accurate, actionable way.

How to manually code qualitative data

1.Choose whether you’ll use deductive or inductive coding.
2.Read through your data to get a sense of what it looks like. Assign your first set of codes.
3.Go through your data line-by-line to code as much as possible. Your codes should become more
detailed at this step.
4.Categorize your codes and figure out how they fit into your coding frame.
5.Identify which themes come up the most — and act on them.

Deductive coding vs. inductive coding

What is Deductive Coding?
 Deductive coding means you start with a predefined set of codes, then assign those codes to the
new qualitative data. These codes might come from previous research, or you might already
know what themes you’re interested in analyzing. Deductive coding is also called concept-driven
coding. You could also use a code set from the codebook of a previous study.
 For example, let’s say you’re conducting a survey on customer experience. You want to
understand the problems that arise from long call wait times, so you choose to make “wait
time” one of your codes before you start looking at the data.

 The deductive approach can save time and help guarantee that your areas of interest are coded.
But you also need to be careful of bias; when you start with predefined codes, you have a bias
as to what the answers will be. Make sure you don’t miss other important themes by focusing
too hard on proving your own hypothesis.

What is Inductive Coding?

 Inductive coding, also called open coding, starts from scratch and creates codes based on the
qualitative data itself. You don’t have a set codebook; all codes arise directly from the survey
responses.
Here’s how inductive coding works:
1.Break your qualitative dataset into smaller samples.
2.Read a sample of the data.
3.Create codes that will cover the sample.
4.Reread the sample and apply the codes.
5.Read a new sample of data, applying the codes you created for the first sample.
6.Note where codes don’t match or where you need additional codes.
7.Create new codes based on the second sample.
8.Go back and recode all responses again.
9.Repeat from step 5 until you’ve coded all of your data

 If you add a new code, split an existing code into two, or change the description of a code, make
sure to review how this change will affect the coding of all responses. Otherwise, the same
responses at different points in the survey could end up with different codes.
 Inductive coding is an iterative process, which means it takes longer and is more thorough than
deductive coding. But it also gives you a more complete, unbiased look at the themes
throughout your data.

Hybrid coding approach is a combination of deductive and inductive methods

To adopt a hybrid approach, you’ll begin your analysis with a set of a priori codes (deductive) and then
add new codes (inductive) as you work your way through the data. Essentially, the hybrid coding
approach provides the best of both worlds, which is why it’s pretty common to see this in research.

Some Types of first round coding

• In vivo coding
• Process coding
• Open coding
• Descriptive coding
• Structural coding
• Value coding

1. In vivo coding
Using of a participants’ own words, rather than your interpretation of the data. In other words, you use
direct quotes from participants as your codes. By doing this, you’ll avoid trying to infer meaning, rather
staying as close to the original phrases and words as possible.
2. Process coding
Next up, there’s process coding, which makes use of action-based codes. Action-based codes are codes
that indicate a movement or procedure. These actions are often indicated by gerunds (words ending in
“-ing”) – for example, running, jumping or singing.
Process coding is useful as it allows you to code parts of data that aren’t necessarily spoken, but that are
still imperative to understanding the meaning of the texts.
3. Descriptive coding
Descriptive coding aims to summarize extracts by using a single word or noun that encapsulates the
general idea of the data. These words will typically describe the data in a highly condensed manner,
which allows the researcher to quickly refer to the content.

 For example, a descriptive code could be “food” when coding a video clip that involves a group
of people discussing what they ate throughout the day, or “cooking” when coding an image
showing the steps of a recipe.
4. Structural coding
Structural coding involves labelling and describing specific structural attributes of the data. Generally, it
includes coding according to answers to the questions of “who”, “what”, “where”, and “how”, rather
than the actual topics expressed in the data.
Let’s take a look at a practical example
Question: What is a pet for you?
Answer: Bella is my best friend. When I’m at home I like to sit on the floor with her and roll her ball
across the carpet for her to fetch and bring back to me. I love my dog.
In this set, we could code Bella as “who”, dog as “what”, home and floor as “where”, and roll her ball as
“how”.

5. Values coding
Finally, values coding involves coding that relates to the participant’s worldviews. Typically, this type of
coding focuses on excerpts that reflect the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the participants.
useful for research exploring cultural values and intrapersonal and experiences and actions.

How to code qualitative data

Step 1 – Initial coding
The first step of the coding process is to identify the essence of the text and code it accordingly.
Let’s take a look at a practical example of coding.
Participant # 1
Question: What pets do you have?
Answer: I have an alpaca and three dogs.
Only one alpaca? They can die of loneliness if they don’t have a friend.
I didn’t know that! I’ll just have to get five more.
Participant # 2
Question: What pets do you have?
Answer: I have twenty-three bunnies. I initially only had two, I’m not sure what happened.
In the initial stage of coding, you could assign the code of “pets” or “animals”. These are just initial, fairly
broad codes that you can (and will) develop and refine later. In the initial stage, broad, rough codes are
fine – they’re just a starting point which you will build onto in the second stage.
Step 2 – Line by line coding
Review your data, line by line, dig deeper and assign additional codes to each line.
The objective is to pay close attention to your data to add detail to your codes.
For example, if you have a discussion of beverages and you previously just coded this as “beverages”,
you could now go deeper and code more specifically, such as “coffee”, “tea”, and “orange juice”.
Data become more detailed and specific and you’ll understand them much better.
Code everything in your data, even if you don’t think you’re going to use it (you may just end up needing
it!).

2nd rounds of coding qualitative data

In this phase, you may re-name, re-code, merge codes, and re-categorize the work you’ve done so far.
While the first round pass at coding data was fast and loose, these rounds of coding are about
reanalyzing, finding patterns, and getting closer to developing theories and concepts.
In general, you should be reducing the number of codes from your initial round of coding, and actively
reflecting on how to best categorize the codes you have.

1. Thematic Analysis Coding

Find recurring patterns and themes
Thematic analysis coding is utilized when you’re looking for themes or patterns across your qualitative
data set. If you find a pattern within different parts of your qualitative data or see that certain excerpts
point to the same underlying idea or meaning, code those excerpts with a unifying code.

When should I use thematic analysis?

 You should consider using thematic analysis in the following scenarios.
 You want to identify patterns in data
 You are new to qualitative analysis
 You want to involve research participants in the analysis process

step by step process of how to do thematic analysis

1. Familiarize yourself with the data
Get familiar with the data. If your data is in the form of audio files, transcribe them yourself or get them
transcribed (see how to transcribe interviews). Read through the transcripts and actively observe
meanings and patterns that appear across your data set. You won’t be formally creating codes yet, but
you should jot down thoughts and memos about potential codes to create.
2. Create your initial codes
Now that you’re familiar with the data, practice thematic analysis coding, and create a set of initial
codes that represent the meanings and patterns you saw in the data. Create a codebook to keep track of
the codes. Read through your data again, and identify interesting excerpts and apply the appropriate
codes to them. Excerpts that represent the same meaning should have the same code applied.
3. Collate codes with supporting data
Now, group together all the excerpts associated with a particular code. If you’re using pen and paper,
cut out the excerpts and group them together by code.
4. Group codes into themes
Now that you have a set of initial codes, sort the codes into potential themes. Themes in qualitative
research are a powerful way to see trends and patterns in your data. See how various codes can be
combined, and see if there are themes that can be made into sub-themes.
5. Review and revise themes
Now that you have your initial set of themes, review and revise your themes. Ensure that each theme
has enough data to support them and is distinct. Consider merging together themes that are similar, and
removing themes that don’t have enough data to back them up. Begin formulating how your themes can
come together into a narrative.

6. Write your narrative

Writing the narrative is the final step to tell the story of your data. You should have fully thought out
themes, and now it’s your chance to communicate to your readers about the validity or your analysis.
Make sure that your narrative tells a coherent story about your data, and choose vivid quotes from your
data that help back up your points. Your narrative should go beyond just describing your data and
should include your own interpretive analysis and make an argument for the claims you present.

Tips for thematic analysis

 Interpret and analyze, don’t just paraphrase
 Themes should be identified from the data, not your research questions
 Ensure themes have enough data to be convincing
 Ensure data supports your themes, and your themes support your narrative

2. Pattern Coding
With Pattern coding, you group similarly coded excerpts under one overarching code to describe a
pattern.
3. Focused coding / selective coding
With Focused coding, you create a finalized set of codes and categories from your first coding pass
(often from “open coding”). You then re-code the qualitative data according to this final code list with
the intent to not deviate from it. In comparison to an initial “open coding” pass which allows for
emergent and changing codes, focused coding is a method where you don’t intend to change the code
list any further.
4. Axial coding
With axial coding, you relate codes or categories to one another. You’re looking for relationships and
links between what you found in earlier rounds of coding.
5. Theoretical coding
With theoretical coding, you conceptualize a hypothesis of a theoretical framework through sorting and
organizing codes. You structure the codes and categories that emerged from qualitative data into a
theory.
6. Elaborative coding
With elaborative coding, you apply a theory from a previous research study and observe whether or not
your current codes
and categories relate. You can think about it as elaborating on pre-existing theories.
7.Longitudinal coding
With longitudinal coding, you organize your existing codes and categories in a way that enables you to
compare them over time.
8. Content analysis coding
With content analysis, you examine and understand the content of textual data. There are two types of
methodological approaches to content analysis: quantitative content analysis and qualitative content
analysis.
Learning Task for Thematic Analysis lesson

Instruction: Choose only one interview question and answer then label the answer line by line the
according to our lesson in Thematic Analysis.

Interview Question: What are some things that we should consider in writing research questions?

Answer: Many qualitative researchers see a question as a beginning point for their research. Once a
satisfactory question is in place, a study can begin. A research question does fulfill this function, but I
propose here that much more is involved in creating and using research questions in qualitative studies.
The reflective and interrogative processes required for developing research questions can give shape
and direction to a study in ways that are often underestimated.
Good questions do not necessarily produce good research, but poorly conceived or constructed
questions will likely create problems that affect all subsequent stages of a study. Ultimately, the quality
of the initial questions impacts whether or not a study is approved by a research committee, published,
or funded.

Interview Question # 2: How does K-12 help 21st century learners?

Answer: The K-12 system does not hold much cons to it. In fact, it was something that was needed long
overdue. The 10 year system was simply insufficient if you considered the first 6 years as ‘basic’
education. Basic English, basic arithmetic. That leaves you with 4 years for intermediate education, not
even advanced! High School doesn’t open up work opportunities as a result and since tertiary education
isn’t free, most become slackers or unemployed. If I was to mention a cons, it would be the time taken
to finish your general curriculum. It will take 2 years to complete it and instead of graduating at 16, you
graduate at 18.
Other than that, the system is just pros, pros, pros! The extra 2 years means all are eligible to study
abroad without needing to retake 2 years in a foreign high school/secondary school. You will only need
to take an IB or SAT exam to enroll into foreign universities.
The extra 2 years also means relevant skillsets can be taught to hopefully open up more job
opportunities for high school graduates, that means a falling unemploying rate and an overall economic
and social benefit.
The extra 2 years also means students can spend more time in school to ponder on their aspirations. It
may sound corny but being in school just makes it easier to ponder such things. Furthermore, that
means students will be exposed to their friends on a daily basis; a strong deterrent to the current
isolationist nature of teenagers who only spends time behind a computer monitor.

Interview Question # 3: How do insecurities break a relationship?

Answer: I am going through this as we speak ..I’ve been dating an amazing woman for two years we got
4 beautiful kids together ..but due to my past and probably cause my parents split when i was 18 i spent
the first 2 years treating her like shit .even though deep down inside my core she was the one I always
wanted ..we had a falling out a few months back ..where from all the fighting we did I thought i couldn’t
handle it..when it was merely me loosing my cool and not communicating..but i left to go live with a
buddy..and that night i left ..i .I realized how badly and how much in love i was with her..so we got back
together ..Unfortunately I did not learn from my mistakes of lashing out during a simple fight .and we
ended up splitting for about 3 weeks..but during those 3 weeks ..I was miserable constantly blaming
myself and constantly thinking she is gonna be with a better man..constantly over thinking and analyzing
shit.. to make a long story short..we are together now Trina work through it..and I’m thankful..but
during those 3 weeks I awoken bad mind over thinking habits I’ve had since 18..and now the insecurities
won’t go away..I’m either over thinking she’s gonna find another man.or she doesn’t love me.or this will
end..but when she shows me an ounce of security ..my mind goes to the over thinking process and
questioning of is this the woman I wanna be with ..do I love her..just super negativity out of
nowhere..and now I cant help but wake up and go to bed thinking about the bullshit that plagues me..I
want to be happy with myself like I was just last month and also be with the woman i know i love at my
core ..but the thoughts hold me back significantly .and i am not myself at all..