TY - JOUR AU - Debies-Carl, Jeffrey PY - 2021/10/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Introduction to Qualitative Analysis: A Coding Exercise Using the Material Culture of College Students JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/introduction-to-qualitative-analysis-a-coding SP - AB - This exercise gives students a very brief and simple but effective experience with qualitative analysis. Students will generate their own data, analyze it through a coding procedure, and draw some tentative conclusions that will provide them with an understanding of how patterns can be found in qualitative data. They will also have a chance to engage in some introspection grounded in the data. In groups, students produce a list of whatever personal objects they have with them in class. Applying principles of open coding, they next reduce this list into a small number of meaningful categories. Finally, they answer a series of questions—as an assignment or for class discussion—that prompt them to interpret these categories: what does this material culture say about the life of a modern college student and how might this compare to students from other time periods? Designed to be completed in 20-30 minutes, this exercise does not require any special materials or preparation. It works well as a general introduction to the spirit of qualitative research for first-year students, but it can also serve as the first step in a program of more rigorous methodological instruction that builds on its fundamental lessons. ER -