Qualitative researchers, I need an intervention. 
I'm doing a dissertation in sociology. I conducted 30 in-depth interviews with first-generation college students about their experiences navigating university life. The interviews were rich. People shared amazing stories. I felt so smart and accomplished after data collection.
Now I have to analyze it. And I have 400 single-spaced pages of transcripts staring at me from my computer screen. 400. PAGES.
I open NVivo. I look at the transcripts. I highlight things that seem important. But then I have 400 highlights and no idea what they mean. Everything seems important. Nothing seems important. I'm supposed to find "themes" but all I see is a chaotic mess of words.
My advisor said "let the themes emerge from the data." Emerge? They're not emerging. They're hiding. They're buried under 400 pages of people saying "um" and "like" and telling long stories about their high school experiences that maybe aren't relevant but felt rude to cut off during the interview.
I've read methodology chapters. I know about coding. First cycle coding, second cycle coding, pattern coding. But knowing the steps and actually doing them are two different things. When I code a sentence as "family support" and another as "parental encouragement," are those different codes? Should I merge them? What's the RULE?
How do you know when you're done coding? How do you know your themes are real and not just things you made up because they sounded good? I'm experiencing major imposter syndrome and data paralysis. Any practical advice from people who've been through this? I'll take anything.
I'm doing a dissertation in sociology. I conducted 30 in-depth interviews with first-generation college students about their experiences navigating university life. The interviews were rich. People shared amazing stories. I felt so smart and accomplished after data collection.
Now I have to analyze it. And I have 400 single-spaced pages of transcripts staring at me from my computer screen. 400. PAGES.
I open NVivo. I look at the transcripts. I highlight things that seem important. But then I have 400 highlights and no idea what they mean. Everything seems important. Nothing seems important. I'm supposed to find "themes" but all I see is a chaotic mess of words.
My advisor said "let the themes emerge from the data." Emerge? They're not emerging. They're hiding. They're buried under 400 pages of people saying "um" and "like" and telling long stories about their high school experiences that maybe aren't relevant but felt rude to cut off during the interview.
I've read methodology chapters. I know about coding. First cycle coding, second cycle coding, pattern coding. But knowing the steps and actually doing them are two different things. When I code a sentence as "family support" and another as "parental encouragement," are those different codes? Should I merge them? What's the RULE?
How do you know when you're done coding? How do you know your themes are real and not just things you made up because they sounded good? I'm experiencing major imposter syndrome and data paralysis. Any practical advice from people who've been through this? I'll take anything.
