There are a number of approaches that can be taken with thematic narrative analysis. The use of codes, ‘a priori’ themes and the focus of the analysis can vary quite significantly between methods. Due to the researcher’s own experience of the subject matter informing the study and in her acknowledgement through the autoethnographic account that there is a subjective view of the data, she felt an analysis that recognized ‘a priori’ themes in advance would provide the most transparent approach to the women’s narratives. Therefore, template analysis was chosen as the most appropriate approach for this study.
The approach of thematic narrative analysis relies on establishing themes in each of the women’s narratives. As highlighted above, to ensure clarity within this process, the researcher used template analysis (King 2012) a technique of coding that acknowledges there can be a number of interpretations of the data depending on the reflexivity of the researcher. This approach to analysis is said to provide a flexible technique of identifying themes that emerge from the study of narratives. This flexibility regarding procedures for data gathering and analysis allows the researcher to adapt the method of analysis for their own study and it considers themes across all narratives rather than analyzing individual cases (King 2012). It is argued that template analysis is not a methodology but a technique, as its flexibility lends itself to a number of research approaches (King 2012). It does not prescribe a set number of codes or themes or hierarchy as grounded theory does, instead it gives the researcher the freedom to ‘identify themes wherever they find the richest data’ (King 2012: 429). This puts template analysis ‘between content analysis where codes are all predetermined and their distribution is analysed statistically, and grounded theory where there is no a priori definition of codes’ (King 1998:118).
With template analysis there are no fixed levels of coding hierarchy, instead the process requires the researcher to establish a coding framework initially with a priori codes or themes that can be used as a starting point in analysis. Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that themes should initially be derived from literature, other approaches include considering professional definitions and researcher’s experiences (Denzin and Lincoln
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2000). Due to the autoethnographic aspect of this study, and in accordance with both Denzin and Lincoln (2000) and Miles and Huberman (1994) the researcher began the analysis by identifying some general themes that became apparent from her own experiences and when reading the literature on mothers, female students and the postgraduate experience. These ‘a priori’ themes were the starting point for the rest of the analysis. The ‘a priori’ themes of motivation, identity and student experience were not emergent, they were established from the reflexivity of the researcher, reflecting on her own experiences of being a part-time PhD student and a mum. This template was then modified as the researcher began reading through the transcriptions, considering broad themes and sub-themes from a subset of data. After using the template on this small subset the researcher considered any patterns in terms of themes and modified the template, identifying any cluster themes. Some of these cluster themes emerged from the ‘a priori’ themes and were maintained throughout the study. The template therefore had a range of main themes and cluster themes that enabled the researcher to identify the women’s narratives in relation to the following areas. The women’s roles in various groups, their perceptions of themselves within these groups and their interactions with the other members of the groups were all areas connected to the ‘a priori’ theme of identity. The topic of motivation was linked to cluster themes of an internal desire to achieve something for themselves, the need for a challenge, the need to develop themselves, the desire for something new in their lives and the desire to prove themselves capable of something more than motherhood. The student experience was an ‘a priori’ theme as the researcher herself felt she lacked the experience of attending research seminars, having a presence on campus, meeting other students and engaging with the institution and its various postgraduate courses and workshops. Cluster themes emerged throughout the women’s narratives, all relating to the need for a student experience yet highlighting the current lack of one. The role of the supervisor, the institution infrastructure, bureaucracy and administration, student culture, research culture and online communities were all identified as recurring issues within the women’s narratives.
There were also new themes emerging about the women’s own feelings and emotions during the PhD process. Guilt, anxiety, lack of self-belief and confidence all became
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apparent as key issues in the women’s experiences. The emotional aspect of the PhD process was not something the researcher had identified on the initial template but it was a theme occurring in all of the 35 interviews conducted. As a result, the template was adapted to reflect the issues the women discussed as pertinent and important to them as mothers working for a part-time PhD. The remaining interviews were then studied using the template. This process allowed a continual process of reflection on the themes, maintaining the potential to revise and add to the template to show a true account of patterns emerging from the data. The coding process of attaching a label to a section of text to indicate its relevance to the theme then allowed the researcher to establish a clearer picture of the relevance of the current themes. The template therefore had broad themes of motivation, identity, the student experience and feelings and emotions of the women. The cluster themes detailed above were then linked to these themes to provide a template that encompassed a range of areas for further analysis.
The aim of establishing themes was that they represented the experiences of the majority of the women respondents. It was important therefore that the majority of the women discussed the issues captured by the themes to ensure those areas highlighted as important by the women were representing the cohort of mothers rather than one or two of them. The literature has indicated variants of descriptions of participant mothers, ‘many’, ‘the majority’ and ‘a number of’ have all been used to categorize the commonality of a theme (Braun & Clarke 2006). For the purpose of this study and to ensure a theme is recurrent and manifests itself in many of the women’s narratives, the researcher focused on issues and experiences that at least half of the women discussed. Each individual had their own approach to mothering whilst balancing part-time PhD study and these individual narratives provided an insight into their own personal lives. However, the experiences recounted by the women that were echoed by others in the study were the experiences, feelings and issues that were used by the researcher to determine a collective view on the experience of being a mother and a part-time PhD student.
Adhering to the guidelines of Template Analysis, (King 2012) the researcher wrote definitions of the themes to ensure there was clarity when identifying text that appeared
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relevant to particular themes. All text was considered and themes were modified from, for example, sub level to key themes as the analysis progressed. The hierarchy of sub and key themes does not reflect a level of importance, they reflect the theme as a broad concept with many aspects or a more specific theme reflecting a particular aspect of experience. Identifying themes is an interpretive process and some of the themes were integrated as they reflected what was important in the overall experience of the women.
There is an argument that template analysis is too structured and identifying themes for a template is too restrictive when handling people’s personal narratives. Researchers may wish to engage with texts in a way that allows a more unstructured approach (King 2012). Kohler Riessman (1993:4) argues that ‘because they are meaning-making structures, narratives must be preserved, not fractured’. She highlights that individuals construct meaning through their analysis and this must be kept intact. However, when working with many narratives, clarity of meaning can be gained from identification of common threads of meaning or themes that occur across the narratives studied. For the purpose of this study, when considering the experiences of 35 women in the hope of establishing a better understanding of them as a cohort of mothers undertaking part-time PhD study, identifying themes allows a unified experience to be explored whilst at the same time maintaining the integrity of the individual narratives and personal experiences of those involved.
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