This section discusses the presentation and analysis of empirical data that are derived from the qualitative interview, MOE arts syllabuses and MICA reports through a process known as “grounded theory”. According to Barlett and Payne (1997: 185), grounded theory method is a process to develop different types of categories in the qualitative research data. In this case, the transcribed data from the qualitative interview and collected documents were examined and codified in terms of various kinds of categorisations. Researcher not only gathers research data but examines at the same time in grounded theory. This means that in the process of examining the research data, theory is also emerging simultaneously and this situation helps researcher to further collect research data in qualitative research process. Four key aspects in regards to “content analysis”, “abstract definition”,
“theoretical sampling” and “theoretical integration” shall also be discussed as these aspects form part of “grounded theory”.
3.5.1 Analysis; Open coding and Meaningful unit: Qualitative Interview
Interviewees‟ verbal responses are required to be converted to “text” for the purpose of research analysis, which is also known as transcription. Because this is my first time to embark on grounded theory and I am a relatively inexperienced researcher, I have decided to transcribe all the data as recommended by Barlett and Payne (1997:
184). Once the interview has been transcribed, the next stage is to analyze the contents of the interview, which is also known as “Open coding”.
The initial stage is to read the transcribe line by line for the purpose of breaking down the data into various segments or portions into an idea, an event, a name or something, which are known as meaningful unit. In other words, “an idea” is a
Page 56 meaningful unit. Each meaningful unit represents a phenomenon, which usually comprises a concept (Barlett and Payne, 1997: 185). Each meaningful unit also means each common theme. In the event that a few of the meaningful units reflect to have similar concepts that relate to the same kind of phenomenon, then, they will be categorised and labelled into the same group of concepts (Barlett and Payne, 1997:
186).
The breaking down of the data into each meaningful unit must be executed along with the theoretical knowledge from the researcher in order to derive each meaningful unit appropriately. This is also known as “theory sensitivity” (Barlett and Payne, 1997: 186 quoted Strauss and Corbin, 1990: 76). This means that the researcher must have a comprehensive knowledge of theory as a source for researcher to have the insights and to understand the way phenomenon occurred in order to break down the data into each concept.
However, Barlett and Payne (1997: 186) highlighted that theoretical sensitivity is usually influenced by researcher personal and professional experiences as well as the technical knowledge to the literature and this may cause researcher to be bias towards his or her own assumptions and researcher.
In order to minimise bias, it is crucial to discuss and present literature reviews that relate to the research study and extract those pertinent points or ideas that share the same phenomenon. These pertinent points or ideas shall be used as a source of reference for me to break down the data to be interpreted into each meaningful unit from the transcriptions of the qualitative interview. In this way, it will demonstrate that I have not derived a concept from my own presumptions because the discussion and presentation of the literature reviews act as reference sources to help me to interpret and label each concept accordingly.
3.5.2 “Content Analysis”: MOE Arts Syllabuses and MICA Reports
Similarly to the way qualitative interview data are transcribed, analysed and categorised into various concepts, documents can be examined and broken into various categories based on a method that is known as content analysis. Hodson (1999: 5) said “Content analysis is a widespread technique in the social science (see Weber: 1990, for an overview). The heart of content analysis is the coding of
Page 57 material from existing sources.” Hodson‟s remarks are similar to the method of open coding in transcribe of qualitative interview (Scott, 1990: 31).
Content Analysis is a process to search for specific items within a text, which appears in the same context for a number of times (Scott, 1990: 32). This means that the initial stage to analyse the MOE and MICA documents is to read them carefully in order to search for a word, an idea, a theme, an event or a name that occurred in the text for a number of time and this is also known as coding of the text (Hodson, 1999: 6). However, I must bear in mind that there must be sufficient evidence to support the rationale for identifying each themes that appeared in the text, which can be mediated by referring to literature reviews to identify themes that appear frequently in the review and such themes shall be used as a source for me to interpret and label the themes that are found in the MOE and MICA documents (Scott, 1999: 32).
3.5.3 Saturation of Categories
Barlett and Payne (1997: 190) quoted Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Strauss (1987) that there will be a time when there is not any new category to be identified after examining all the texts in the documents and the transcripts of the interview and there is not anything new to be learned. This is the time when the coding process has reached its saturation point and it is also known as theoretical saturation. This is also the time when researcher will be able to organise all the categories that relate to specific idea or theme.
3.5.4 Abstracts Definitions: Qualitative Interview and MOE/MICA Documents As there is not any new theme to be found in the transcribes of the qualitative interview, MOE and MICA documents because it is reached its saturation point, I shall formulate an abstract definition of each of the categories in regards to their properties, dimensions and subcategories by undergoing an in-depth examination of all the themes from qualitative interview and MOE and MICA documents to have an even clearer understanding of the nature of the phenomenon that is being examined for the purpose of searching for common themes that shared a similar disposition (Barlett and Payne, 1997: 190-191 quoted Turner, 1982). Subsequently, such common themes shall be reorganised and classified into individual main themes.
Page 58 3.5.5 Theoretical Integration
This is the stage to “ground the theory”. This is achieved by displaying all diagrams that reflect the individual main themes of the qualitative interviews and key documents, which I shall examine carefully to study the relationship between all the individual themes from the qualitative interviews and documents to search for a story line of my research study. If there are instances that do not fit in the theory, researcher needs to find out the reasons and search for extra intervening conditions that explain the differences.