Ensayos funcionales in vitro 1 Transfección con vector de expresión

The qualitative data analysis in this study followed Creswell’s (2015) process of qualitative data analysis and interpretation which involves a bottom up approach. According to Creswell (2015):

[There are] six steps involved in analysing and interpreting qualitative data: preparing and organizing [sic] the data, exploring and coding the database, describing findings and forming themes, representing and reporting findings, interpreting the meaning of the findings, and validating the accuracy of the findings (p.235).

All of the interview data, including audio files and transcriptions were organised into computer files during the early stage of data analysis. According to Creswell (2015), “Organization [sic] of data is critical in qualitative research because of the large amount of information gathered during a study” (p.237). Separate computer files were created for each interview participant. These files were saved on a password protected computer and a back-up was saved on a password protected external hard drive. The interviewees were given pseudonyms and the data was labelled according to these names and the sequential number of the interviews. This helped both to organise and manage data and make it easy to retrieve in future during the other steps of data analysis. The recorded interviews were listened to and then transcribed verbatim in Urdu language. Transcription is “the process of converting audio recordings … into text data”

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(Creswell, 2014, p. 263). Next, since the interviews were conducted in Urdu Language, all of the interview transcripts were translated into English. The transcripts were then independently back-translated to ensure the translation was accurate. The researcher conducted the transcription, translation and back-translation processes herself.

The researcher first analysed the data manually and then used computer software package NVivo (10, QSR International). The first stage in manual analysis was to gain familiarisation with the data for which the interview recordings were listened to again and the interview transcripts were read through several times to dig further into the data. Warren and Karner (2010, p. 218) say “Reading, rereading, contemplating, thinking, and rereading is where you begin” and “As you are reading and rereading your data, you will begin to notice some similarities or themes” (p. 218). During manual analysis, Creswell’s (2015) model of the coding process was employed for coding. According to Creswell (2015), “Coding is the process of segmenting and labelling text to form descriptions and broad themes in the data” (p.242). Information in each interview transcription was segmented by underlining the important excerpts regarding the information on the participants’ transition and prior learning experiences and notes were written on the side margins of the hard copies.

In the next step of manual analysis, open coding was undertaken and all the segmented descriptions were labelled. Warren and Karner (2010) refer to open coding as the initial steps that help in identifying the emerging themes through the researcher being immersed in the data. At this stage, 16 categories were identified and labelled. Having a big picture of the data through open coding helped in staying open to new interpretations so that anything important was not missed during the early stage of analysis and before narrowing the focus (Warren & Karner, 2010). After that, thematic coding (collapsing the codes into themes) was commenced manually. Thematic codes are first-level codes that help in identifying emergent themes through grouping the summarised sets of data that seem to go together, into smaller number of sets or themes (Creswell, 2015; Merriam, 2009; Miles & Huberman, 1994). Five themes emerged at this stage. These emerging themes were highlighted in different colours.

As themes emerged, matrix displays were constructed and all of the important information was transferred into matrices using a separate electronic file for each interviewee. This helped in selecting important information on all the themes and led to identifying the major findings. Data display is “an organised, compressed assembly of information that permits conclusion drawing and action” (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 11). Next, the data across all of the interviews were clustered under the identified thematic categories, using separate matrices for each theme.

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Matrices from each theme were stored in separate files and saved in a single folder. This completed the manual analysis of the interview data.

In the next stage, the computer software package NVivo (10, QSR International) was used to manage data after the initial manual coding. “Fundamentally, NVivo does two things: it supports the storing and manipulation of texts or documents; and it supports the creation and manipulation of codes, known in NVivo as nodes” (Gibbs, 2002, p.16). All of the interview data was entered into NVivo in separate files for each interview participant. The next step was data reduction and data coding. This was the first stage of data reduction which Miles and Huberman (1994) refer to as “the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and transforming the data that appear in field-notes or transcriptions” (p. 10). Warren and Karner (2010) suggest that “In order to move from lists of data excerpts to creating order out of chaos, much remains to be done to develop a fully conceptualized [sic] analytic description, including making connections and interpreting and validating the data” (pp. 237-238). At this stage, thematic categories were delineated and conceptual coding was done using the same five thematic categories that emerged during manual coding. All the relevant information from the data was clustered in nodes for the five thematic categories. This helped in getting further familiarisation with the data.

In the next stage, after identifying the major themes, they were interconnected. According to Creswell (2015), “Interconnecting themes means that the researcher connects the themes to display a chronology or sequence of events, such as when qualitative researchers generate a theoretical or conceptual model” (p. 251). After that the interview data was interpreted, based on the emergent themes identified in the thematic analysis.