School Psychology Quarterly © 2011 American Psychological Association 2011, Vol. 26, No. 1, 70–84 1045-3830/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0022711 Beyond Constant Comparison Qualitative Data Analysis: Using NVivo Nancy L. Leech Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie University of Colorado Denver Sam Houston State University The purposes of this paper are to outline seven types of qualitative data analysis techniques, to present step-by-step guidance for conducting these analyses via a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software program (i.e., NVivo9), and to present screenshots of the data analysis process. Specifically, the following seven analyses are presented: constant comparison analysis, classical content analysis, key- word-in-context, word count, domain analysis, taxonomic analysis, and componential analysis. It is our hope that providing a clear step-by-step process for conducting these analyses with NVivo9 will assist school psychology researchers in increasing the rigor of their qualitative data analysis procedures. Keywords: qualitative data analysis, NVivo, qualitative research, computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software School psychology researchers have many ogy) between 2001 and 2005, only 6 repre- available tools in order to complete successfully sented qualitative research articles. Yet, utiliz- their research. For example, it is commonly ing these tools, such as QDA Miner, known that school psychology researchers can Ethnograph, and NVivo (QSR International Pty utilize published surveys, web-based data col- Ltd, 2008), can increase the rigor of a qualita- lection tools (e.g., Zoomerang), and quantitative tive study (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2007), es- computer programs (e.g., SPSS) to assist with pecially those with large data sets. their analyses. These tools are extremely bene- For many school psychology researchers, the ficial for school psychology researchers because most complicated step in the research process is they assist them with many of the steps required that of analysis (Gliner, Morgan, & Leech, in a quantitative research study. Unfortunately, 2009; Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007). Knowing available tools for qualitative research studies which analysis to use with different types of are less commonly known, which may contrib- research questions and various types of data can ute to there being relatively few purely qualita- be very confusing, especially for a novice re- tive studies published in the area of school searcher. This is even a more prominent issue psychology (Powell, Mihalas, Onwuegbuzie, with qualitative data because many school psy- Suldo, & Daley, 2008). Indeed, Powell et al. chology researchers have not had much training (2008) documented that of the 438 empirical in qualitative methods, and they are often not articles published in the four leading school psychology journals (i.e., School Psychology knowledgeable about different qualitative data Quarterly, School Psychology Review, Psychol- analysis techniques (Leech & Goodwin, 2008). ogy in the Schools, Journal of School Psychol- Consistent with our assertion, Powell et al. (2008) reported that of the 57 National Associ- ation of School Psychology-approved graduate- level school psychology programs, only 1 Nancy L. Leech, School of Education and Human De- (1.75%) appeared to require that students enroll velopment, University of Colorado Denver; Anthony J. On- wuegbuzie, Department of Educational Leadership and in one or more qualitative courses, and 11 Counseling, Sam Houston State University. (19.3%) appeared to offer one or more qualita- Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- tive courses as an elective. dressed to Nancy L. Leech, University of Colorado Denver, For school psychologists who conduct quali- School of Education and Human Development, Campus Box 106, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217. E-mail: tative research, there is available guidance and [email protected] tools to assist in analysis. When looking for 70 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS COMPUTER TOOLS 71 guidance, there are numerous texts wherein the to conducting the analysis manually (Bazeley, authors discuss qualitative research in general 2006, 2007; Fielding & Lee, 1998; Kelle, 1996; (e.g., Eisner, 1998; Glesne & Peshkin, 1992); Tesch, 1990; Weitzman & Miles, 1995). For yet, many of these texts include only one chap- example, these programs assist the researcher in ter on data analysis (e.g., Berg, 2004; Bogdan & recording, storing, indexing, sorting, and coding Biklen, 2003; Creswell, 2007; Schram, 2003; qualitative data (Morse & Richards, 2002). One Shank, 2002). There are several textbooks that especially helpful feature of CAQDAS is their focus solely on qualitative data analysis (Coffey ability efficiently to compare categories and & Atkinson, 1996; Dey, 1993; Grbich, 2007; codes in a relatively short amount of time Miles & Huberman, 2004; Phillips & Jor- (Bazeley, 2006). gensen, 2002; Silverman, 2001). Yet, all of Many researchers who use qualitative data these texts, with a few exceptions (e.g., Grbich, analyses software typically use the software to 2007; Miles & Huberman, 1994) focus on a conduct some form of constant comparison singular analysis (e.g., discourse analysis; Phil- analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & lips & Jorgensen, 2002). Therefore, these texts Corbin, 1998). Doing so limits the researcher to do not present a comprehensive review of finding codes throughout the dataset; other multiple types of available qualitative data types of relationships in the data are not iden- analysis techniques, and none of these texts tified and might be overlooked. Computer soft- present how to conduct these analyses using ware tools are capable of assisting the qualita- computer software. tive researcher with multiple types of analyses, Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2007) go further so that the underlying theories and relationships than do most authors of these textbooks by in the data can emerge. describing seven types of analyses, namely, It is important to keep in mind that when constant comparison analysis, classical content conducting qualitative research, the researcher analysis, keyword-in-context, word count, do- is the main tool for analysis (Denzin & Lincoln, main analysis, taxonomic analysis, and compo- 2005). Thus, CAQDAS programs, along with nential analysis; and they outline how to con- all types of analysis software (e.g., SPSS, SAS), duct each manually. These authors have also do not analyze the data for the researcher. created a compendium of 18 qualitative analy- Rather, the researcher utilizes the computer pro- ses to assist the school psychology researcher in gram to assist in the analysis. choosing the appropriate analysis for their works (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2008). Fortunately, such guides (e.g., Leech & On- wuegbuzie, 2007, 2008) can assist the school Table 1 psychology researcher with conducting qualita- Types of Qualitative Research Designs tive analyses manually. Yet, with large data ● Ethnography sets, conducting qualitative data analysis man- ● Auto-ethnography ually typically is not practical or desirable. Over ● Life history the past decade or so, the availability of com- ● Oral history ● puter software to conduct qualitative data anal- Ethnomethodology ● Case study ysis has increased (Ulin, Robinson, & Tolley, ● Participant observation 2005). Today, there are programs such as QDA ● Field research or field study Miner, Ethnograph, NVivo (QSR International ● Naturalistic study Pty Ltd, 2008), and Atlas/ti to assist researchers ● Phenomenological study with their analyses. These programs, in many ● Ecological descriptive study ● respects, are very similar to one another and Descriptive study ● Symbolic interactionist study facilitate many of the same analyses to be con- ● Microethnography ducted; yet, each tends to have its own unique ● Interpretive research features (Fielding & Lee, 1998; Tesch, 1990; ● Action research Weitzman & Miles, 1995). Using a computer- ● Narrative research assisted qualitative data analysis software ● Historiography ● Literary criticism (CAQDAS) program can take qualitative data ● analysis much further than is possible compared Grounded theory 72 LEECH AND ONWUEGBUZIE Table 2 Using NVivo To Conduct Constant Comparison Analysis If a node exists that you would like to reuse: Highlight selected text. 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