Short, Sweet, and Late

I was frustrated reading Taylow, Lewins and Gribbs (2005) discussion regarding the debates about CAQDAS packages. I found myself continually saying “but that was then” and wondering how the debate has advanced The article is nearly a decade old and many of the debates presented were over two decades old. I understand the need to for historical framing, but I would hope that these concerns have been addressed and that researchers are far less critical and CAQDAS packages have worked their way into the mainstream of data analysis.

I did appreciate the recognition that CAQDAS packages allow for multiple coding schemas and allow the researcher to revisit the data – especially large data sets. Collecting extreme amounts of data (like those often gathered during the investigative portion of dissertation work) can be both beneficial and overwhelming. CAQDAS packages allow the data to “be reused and returned to with new analytic ideas and objectives.” This allows a researcher to continue the data analysis beyond the initial publication. In doing this I think the researcher and those interesting in the area are actually given more in-depth exposure to the overall analysis and they can see more than the initial interpretation of the data. Utilizing the same data set through several projects, with different perspectives and goals makes the overall data analysis more thorough. This is amazing affordance offered by CAQDAS packages that doesn’t  surprise me, but that I hadn’t thought existed.

In trying to make up for this being short and late – here’s a Vic Pic! This might put his size in perspective.