The main objective of our project is create programs for children in poverty, but a main pillar to the team’s values is that we incorporate the ideas of the very people we hope to impact into the design of our program. That means that a majority of our process is taking the time to interview and ask for feedback from children in our target group, their parents, social workers, and teachers. After all, how can we know better than those directly affected by poverty in assessing their needs?
So, the first step is to create a questionnaire full of prompting questions that aim to give us a glimpse into their perspectives. With that information, we intend to conduct a full methodological analysis using qualitative techniques. The process involves thorough analysis and a process called “coding”, which extracts overarching, important themes in the responses that allow us to draw supported conclusions.
This process can take a lot of time, but is important in conducting robust research and adding an element of validity to our results.
Here is a quick and simple video on the general process of analyzing qualitative data.
Have fun, fellow researchers (in training)! :)