ATS3222 Chap.8 Theoretical Frameworks and Qualitative Coding
Theoretical Frameworks and Qualitative Coding
Week 7 is about analysing, organising and presenting qualitative material. Its first questions concern theory: how a theory shapes your approach to knowledge, what links theories to concepts, and whether you can identify a theoretical framework for your own research and its link to how you define core concepts.
In an individual activity, students visualise their framework and explain how it shapes research questions, methodology and methods of data collection.
The group activity then codes an interview transcript: highlight key phrases, discuss what the interviewee is expressing, label meanings as codes on sticky notes, cluster codes into broader themes, and name the patterns that emerge.
This chapter works that sequence on a short constructed excerpt and explains two common slips: codes that summarise rather than interpret, and themes stated as topics rather than claims.
It also explains inductive and deductive coding and the use of a codebook. Practice tasks cluster codes from interviews about part-time work into two themes and show how a theory of social capital would change that coding.
The Week 7 case studies, written from interview transcripts, are recommended as models of linking each claim to supporting evidence.
The skills in this chapter are practical rather than theoretical. Coding is learned by doing it, comparing your codes with someone else's, and revising.
The chapter therefore offers short exercises you can repeat with any transcript, including the notes from your own Week 5 practice interviews.
What this chapter covers
- 01
What a theoretical framework does
- 02
How theory defines concepts
- 03
Highlighting a transcript
- 04
From codes to themes
- 05
Inductive and deductive coding
- 06
Keeping a codebook
- 07
Checking themes against data
Worked example · free
Code two sentences and propose a theme
- +1Code one, 'preparation as permission': speaking is conditional on having done the work.
- +1Code two, 'strategic invisibility': turning the camera off to avoid being called on.
- +1Possible theme: 'students manage participation to protect their image of competence', to be checked against other transcripts.
Key terms
- Code
- A short label naming the meaning of a passage of qualitative data in relation to the research question.
- Theme
- A pattern formed by clustering related codes, stated as a claim that the data can support or contradict.
- Codebook
- A list of codes with a definition and example quotation for each, used to apply codes consistently.
- Deductive coding
- Applying codes drawn from a theory or framework to the data from the outset.
- Inductive coding
- Letting codes arise from the data before relating them to theory.
- In vivo code
- A code that uses a participant's own words as the label for a passage.
Theoretical Frameworks and Qualitative Coding FAQ
How does a theoretical framework affect my research?
In the Week 7 activity you explain how your framework informs your research questions, methodology and methods of data collection. If it changes none of these, it is not functioning as a framework.
What are the steps in coding a transcript?
Read and highlight key phrases, discuss what the speaker is expressing, label those meanings as codes, cluster related codes into broader themes, and identify the common patterns emerging from the data.
What is the difference between a code and a theme?
A code labels the meaning of one passage. A theme groups several codes into a claim about the data as a whole, such as how belonging is built, which can be tested against other transcripts.
Do I report findings in the proposal?
No, because the study has not been carried out. Instead explain how you will analyse data: the framework, whether coding is deductive, inductive or both, and how themes will be checked.
How many codes should I end up with?
There is no fixed number. Early coding often produces many specific codes, which are then merged into fewer themes. What matters is that each code is defined and each theme is supported by passages from more than one participant.
Should I code inductively or deductively?
It depends on how much is already known. Deductive coding starts from a framework's concepts, inductive coding lets labels arise from the data, and many projects combine them by beginning with a few theory-led codes and adding more as needed.
Assessment move
Take any interview notes from Week 5 and code one page in pencil, then rewrite every code that merely repeats the words. Cluster the codes into two themes written as sentences. Finally, choose one theory relevant to your own topic and write two sentences on how it would change what you code. Keep a list of the codes you merged and why, since that record shows a marker how your analysis developed.
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