Trainer: Professor Jane Elliott, Head of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, London
WISERD hosted a one-day workshop on combining qualitative and quantitative approaches / analysis in longitudinal work. The workshop drew on data from an NCDS ESRC study and makes use of NVivo 8 software for analysis. Participants were introduced to the definitions of narrative and its potential for use in both qualitative and quantitative research. The design and content of the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study was briefly be introduced, and the methodology of a recent qualitative study on social participation and identity that involved biographical interviews. Participants had the opportunity to discuss the analysis of (pre-circulated) extracts from qualitative biographical interview material with a focus on the narrative elements of the textual material. Participants explored the use of NVivo for combining qualitative and quantitative data and for facilitating analysis. The focus will be on: Cases and sources; the casebook and attribute conditions; using text search for efficient coding; matrix coding queries using nodes and attributes. Participants also had a chance to use the Nvivo package to analyse some extracts from interview material linked with quantitative data from the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study. Exercises were provided so that participants can gain practical experience of using the features of Nvivo.