#2 Deductive and codebook thematic analysis

Thematic analysis: a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data

Reflexive statement

It’s very important to make my ontological and epistemological assumptions explicit, and that the theoretical framework and methods match what the research wants to know.

I am approaching this study from multiple philosophical standpoints. Mixed methods researchers using an instrument development model often start from constructivist principles during the first phase of the study to value multiple perspectives and obtain deep understanding. Then, when the researcher moves to the quantitative phase, the underlying assumptions can shift to those of a postpositivist philosophical stance to guide the need for evaluating and measuring.

It is appreciated by the researcher that the future is unknowable, and statements on preparedness during group interviews will involve some judgement of likelihood in the mind of the statement-maker, which are also dependent on what they perceive to be necessary in order to be competent as a student. It is also likely that individual perceptions of preparedness are highly influenced by experience and are contextualised. If preparedness is socially and experientially bound and multiple truths can exist, it is appropriate to take a constructivist approach to qualitative phase of the study. The researcher facilitating the group interviews is a veterinary surgeon, who has experienced WCT personally, and has been involved in the supervision of veterinary students in the workplace as part of their clinical training. From an epistemological standpoint it is likely that the data produced from the group interviews will be socially constructed and, at least partially, influenced by the experiences of the researcher and their interaction with the participants.

Provided that saturation is reached in the group interviews and the perspectives of all key stakeholders are brought together, the assimilated perceptions of preparedness could be assumed to form a collective single truth, one reality of what preparedness is like. Students will be either well-prepared (and then competent) or not, according to that objective reality grounded in the perceptions of the group interview participants. As such the researcher takes a postpositivist view for the quantitative phase of the study. Here, the researcher takes the ontological view that there is a fixed reality of what preparedness is, but that they can never fully understand that reality. There is an objective truth, but they are unlikely to ever find it. The researcher aims to explain what it means to be well-prepared for WCT as best they can. In terms of epistemology, the researcher can appreciate that the knowledge gained from the questionnaire is our current understanding of preparedness; it is ‘for now’. There is an, albeit quite short and incomplete, lineage of knowledge of what it means to be prepared for WCT and this data is adding to it. It is open to critical review, being refined, tested or refuted.

Decisions to make

According to Braun & Clarke’s Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology there are five decisions to make prior to starting thematic analysis:

1) What counts as a theme?

• There are no hard and fast rules

• They need to be flexible

• They do not ‘emerge’ – they are actively identified, and we select those of interest

• There should be a number of instances of a theme in the data set

• However, the importance of a theme is not necessarily proportional to quantifiable measures but it captures something important in relation to the overall question

• Remember “some of the worst examples of ‘thematic’ analysis we have read have simply used the questions put to participants as the ‘themes’ identified in the ‘analysis’ – although in such instances, no analysis has really been done at all!”. The themes still need to come from the data! I need to be careful not to force the themes identified in the review of workplace learning theory, and which form the basis for the interview guide, onto the data.

2) A rich description of the data set, or a detailed account of one particular aspect?

• I am specifically looking at the aspect of the data where participants discuss what preparedness is, as opposed to how they are prepared or what happens during WCT

3) Inductive or deductive thematic analysis?

• Inductive: from the bottom up, a data driven approach, coding the data without trying to fit to a pre-existing coding frame or preconceptions

• Deductive: from the top down, also known as ‘theoretical’ thematic analysis – it is driven by theoretical and analytic interest, more explicitly analyst driven.

• I am performing deductive thematic analysis – I have a requirement to generate a group of preparedness characteristics (an analytic interest)

4) Semantic or latent themes?

• Semantic = themes are identified within the explicit or surface meanings of the data, not looking for anything beyond what a participant has said, but there is some progression from description – we theorise on themes’ significance or broader meaning

• Latent = starts to examine the underlying ideas/assumptions that inform the underlying content of the data

• I am looking to identify semantic themes; I am mostly interested in what it means to be well prepared for WCT rather than why participants think that

5) Epistemology

• Constructivism (see above)

Braun & Clarke’s three broad types of thematic analysis

I will be using a codebook approach because as well as embracing a more constructivist philosophy, it acknowledges the pragmatic demands of instrument development design – that I need to generate a group of preparedness characteristics which will be used in the questionnaire.

The six stages of thematic analysis

I will use the six stages of thematic analysis described by Braun & Clarke as a general plan of action for my deductive, codebook thematic analysis.

References

Braun V, Clarke V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 2006;3(2):77-101.

Braun V, Clarke V. Can I use TA? Should I use TA? Should I not use TA? Comparing reflexive thematic analysis and other pattern-based qualitative analytic approaches. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 2021;21(1):37-47.

Braun V, Clarke V. One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology 2020:1-25.

Braun V, Clarke V, Hayfield N, Terry G. Thematic Analysis. In: Liamputtong P, editor. Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences. Singapore: Springer Singapore; 2019. p. 1-18.