If you're doing qualitative research, you're probably coding your data. But coding isn't just a step you complete before the “real” analysis begins — it is a fundamental part of the analysis. It’s where you begin to make sense of what participants are saying, how...
In ChatGPT, each conversation is stored as a thread — a sequence of messages that you can name, revisit, and build upon. Most people treat threads as disposable: start a new chat, ask a question, close the window. This works for quick, one-off tasks, but it doesn’t...
AI tools like ChatGPT are becoming increasingly woven into the everyday workflows of qualitative researchers. From helping draft interview guides to summarising literature, structuring results, or designing reflexive questions, AI can support a wide range of...
In qualitative research, your question isn’t just a starting point—it’s a commitment.It commits you to a way of seeing, a way of asking, and a way of interpreting. It also commits you to particular layers of meaning: whether your focus is on the inner world, the...
In qualitative research, we’re not just asking what happens—we’re asking how people make sense of what happens, and how we can interpret people’s experience with respect to the broader social context. To do this well, we need to understand that meaning is not...
In qualitative research, analysis is often described as a layered process—starting with descriptive codes and building toward complex, interpretive themes. Yet too often, we think of writing as something linear: once we analyse, we write. But effective qualitative...
Let me start with a confession: I find writing hard. Not in a romantic “tortured artist” way, but in a deep, frustrating, occasionally confidence-wrecking way. For years, I believed I had to fully understand what I wanted to say before I could write anything at all....
Used well, AI can play a valuable supporting role, especially during early stages of analysis. It helps manage volume, notice repetition, and create structure across large datasets. Can algorithms read between the lines?When I ran an interview transcript through...
In just a few years, generative AI has gone from futuristic novelty to daily research companion. It transcribes interviews, summaries readings, codes data — sometimes before you’ve finished your coffee. But as qualitative researchers, we need to ask: is AI deepening...
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