Doing Data Analysis in Partnership

Talking with your partners about how to analyse data is part of doing data analysis. Not everyone will understand what data analysis is (see What is Data Analysis?)

Data analysis is something you should do as you do your research and not just at the end of a project. For example, it is a good idea to think about your early interviews to help you plan and do future interviews. It is a way of learning and making your research better as you go along. We can use the points raised in Working with words: Starting Points to consider how you might do data analysis in partnership.

Keep asking yourself: What new ideas and feelings are you having about the research as you do it?

Thinking about things on your own is good, but find time to talk to your research partners about what you are thinking about the research as you are doing it. If you are doing different bits of the work, it would be a good idea to meet regularly so that everyone knows how it is going. There may be things that people need to know before they do their share of the work, for example if someone got angry or upset when you went to visit them.

If you meet and talk about your thoughts about the research with your partners, you may see things in new ways. You may get new ideas about what you should do next and new ideas about how to do the research best. For example, you might decide it would be good to interview people in a group rather than one-to-one.

Look for themes or patterns. You could try coding the data – labelling it – and then you will see if the same ideas keep coming up.

It may be useful to sit with your research partner(s) and read through your data. You can stop and talk about things that interest you whenever you feel like it. This may help you to work out the 'story' of your data. You need to keep asking yourself: 'How do I make sense of what is going on here?' 'What useful lessons have I learnt that I could tell other people?'

It may be a good idea if each person reads the data before you meet. Sometimes this will not be possible because of reading problems. You should keep a record of these data analysis meetings (either written or taped) so that you can go back and think about the ideas again. This record may also help when you want to write about your research. You may want to keep a plan or chart of your ideas and how they link together. Some people call these charts ‘concept maps’. See: ‘Introduction to Concept Mapping’ at: www.dyslexic.com

You can do analysis in partnership with other kinds of data like videos and photographs.

Read about what others have said about what you are interested in.

It is very useful to read what other people have done in their research. This can help give you good ideas for thinking about your work. You may not agree with other people's ideas and this is fine too. You can read things aloud in a group which can be useful if people have reading problems. Television programmes, websites and films may be useful as well. Some people might like to be shown how to find useful things to read on the internet or in the library.

Keep writing as you go along.

It is a good idea to write down your ideas as well as talk about them. This is because it can help you to make your ideas clearer. You should also keep a record of what you did in your research. This will help you write up your research at the end of the project (if this is what you want to do).

You may want to write on your own and then talk about what you have written. Or you may want to try and write together (see How do you write in partnership?). If you do not want to write things down, you can talk your ideas to a tape, or ask someone else to write down your ideas. Not everything that you write or think about needs to be talked about with your research partners. Some things you may want to keep private.

Work with lots of different people to help you make sense of the data

Sometimes it can be useful to work with people outside of your partnership. This is a good way of getting new ideas about your data. They may be able to say things about your data that you cannot say. If you have interviewed people, you can show them what you have written and ask them what they think. This can give you new ideas to add to your research.