Qualitative Data Analysis: Practical Strategies

Bazeley's text on qualitative data analysis is full of helpful tricks, tools, and techniques. As such, it is a terrific reference and students studying research should keep this one handy. The screen shots from qualitative data analysis programs enhance the discussion. Further, Bazeley should be commended for the creativity she advocates when discussing the many different ways researchers may break down and break open qualitative data.

The course for which I read this text was condensed into an eight-week timeframe, which was far too short to develop a complete understanding of the content of this text (especially when considering we had other texts to read in the course as well). Personally, I would like to see a slightly more lengthy discussion of validity concerns, though this was not the focus of the text and Bazeley provided more than enough techniques that could be used for triangulation efforts.

I found Bazeley to be biased toward qualitative data analysis software. I appreciated her acknowledgement of the benefits of software tools and I agree that such tools can significantly streamline data analysis. The text, at times, seemed to actively discourage students from employing manual techniques, frequently pointing out the overwhelming nature of everything from printing off multiple copies of data, to the potential for losing certain versions from one's pile, to the difficulty of creating complete code lists.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book to qualitative research students.