coding and analyzing semi-structured interviews: first

Coding and Analyzing Semi-

Structured Interviews: First-

Generation Latinx College

Students’ Perceptions of How

Family Relationships Impact Their

College Success

© 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods Datasets.

Coding and Analyzing Semi-

Structured Interviews: First-

Generation Latinx College

Students’ Perceptions of How

Family Relationships Impact Their

College Success

Student Guide

Introduction

This dataset demonstrates how researchers can analyze transcribed, semi-

structured, qualitative interview data through a process of coding and thematic

development. The data are provided by Dr. Jennifer A. Strangfeld in the

Department of Sociology, Gerontology, and Gender Studies at California State

University, Stanislaus, and were supported in part by a Research, Scholarship,

and Creative Activities Grant from California State University, Stanislaus. The

interviews come from a larger research study designed to better understand

how families may serve as a source of “cultural wealth” (Yosso, 2005) for first-

generation Latinx (a gender-neutral term to refer to Latinos and Latinas) college

students and thereby facilitate persistence towards retention and completion of

degrees. In other words, this research examines the extent to which families

provide their first-generation students with emotional support, motivation, and

strategies for perseverance and the importance these students attach to those

resources in facilitating their college success. This research is rooted in a

SAGE

2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part

2

of 12 Coding and Analyzing Semi-Structured Interviews: First-Generation Latinx

College Students’ Perceptions of How Family Relationships Impact Their

College Success

constructivism approach whereby the emphasis is on the meanings participants

attach to familial support and its importance in their overall academic journeys.

The dataset model presented here encourages readers to understand how a

study’s epistemological and theoretical framework impacts not only the research

questions asked but also the study’s methodology and approach to data analysis.

Thus, this exemplar will be particularly useful for those engaging in social science

and higher education research who want to better understand the connection

between epistemology, methodology, and data analysis.

Semi-Structured Interviews

Like other methodological approaches, the choice to collect data through semi-

structured interviews should stem from the epistemological and theoretical

framework guiding the research project rather than serve as a starting point in

itself (Jones, Torres, & Arminio, 2014). For this project, the focus was on how

first-generation Latinx students discussed the concept of family support and its

importance to them, given that their family members had little to no personal

experience with college and generally had limited financial resources to pay for

tuition and other costs. By emphasizing the meanings that participants themselves

attached to their family support, this project took a constructivist epistemological

approach, for which semi-structured interviews are an appropriate methodological

choice.

In semi-structured interviews, the researcher “unpacks” the complex and diverse

meanings that individuals attach to their lived experiences (Ritchie, 2003). They

do this by engaging participants in focused conversations that include appropriate

follow-up questions to ensure clarity and depth of understanding (Rubin & Rubin,

2012). Importantly, however, these conversations are guided by organized

interview schedules of open-ended yet purposeful questions that are as free of

judgement and bias as possible and reflect the project’s epistemological and

SAGE



2



College Success

theoretical underpinnings (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). For example, given the

constructivist focus of this project, I asked participants to discuss what concepts

like “family” and “emotional support” mean to them, so that the focus was on their

meanings rather than my own.

In the planning stages of this project, I solicited feedback on the interview

questions from a colleague with expertise in research on first-generation college

students. Based on that feedback, I made adjustments to some questions and

added others as recommended. Additionally, it is

worth noting here that semi-structured interviews require strong active listening

skills to effectively solicit follow-up information (Legard, Keegan, & Ward, 2003).

Consequently, I used notepaper during interviews to keep track of issues I wished

to follow up on either immediately or later on in the interview. I reviewed these

notes before subsequent interviews with new participants to ensure I asked about

similar points whenever relevant.

Data Exemplar: Semi-Structured Interviews of First-Generation

Latinx College Students

The data consist of excerpts from interviews of how first-generation Latinx college

students framed the importance of their families in facilitating their decisions

to pursue college and encouraging their persistence to degree completion.

Oftentimes, first-generation college students are discussed in terms of their

cultural capital deficits (i.e., the knowledge they lack about college applications

and expectations; see Engle & Tinto, 2008). However, research also suggests that

Latinx students in particular have strong familial ties that may in fact be an asset in

their college success (i.e., a cultural wealth model; see Yosso, 2005). To explore

this, the project’s central questions included:

• How do first-generation Latinx students construct the role of their families

SAGE



2



College Success

within the broader frame of their academic success?

• To what extent are students distracted by family obligations and

expectations?

• To what extent do students draw upon family members for support?

Based on the above research focus, the interview outline consisted of questions

based on the following broader topics:

• Motivations for attending college

• Sources of emotional support

• Sources of financial support

• Family responsibilities

• Keys to college success

The extracts below come from questions related to the first two areas of inquiry.

The participants represent four (two males and two females) of the 20 first-

generation Latinx college students (aged 18–25) included in the study. Interviews

were audio-recorded, lasted about one hour, and were conducted by Dr. Jennifer

A. Strangfeld. To protect confidentiality, interviews were done in a private room on

campus, and all participants were assigned pseudonyms.

Analysis: Coding and Thematic Development

Theoretical Grounding

The epistemological and methodological underpinnings of the research project

play a role in the data analysis process as well. For example, in this study,

the emphasis on constructivism and meaning suggests that analysis should go

beyond just a description of the data and include an interpretation of why

participants assign the meanings that they do and how those meanings shape

their lived experience (Jones et al., 2014). In conducting this kind of analysis,

SAGE



2



College Success

researchers look for what are often referred to as themes which, simply put, are

labels or phrases the researcher attaches to respondents’ descriptions and ideas

(Rubin & Rubin, 2012). Quoting directly from respondents becomes particularly

useful in this context because the quotes serve as evidence of the researcher’s

interpretive conclusions (Glesne, 2011).

Coding

One way to discover themes in a research project is through the process of

coding, which occurs after interviews have been transcribed from audio

recordings. Coding generally occurs in stages, thus requiring researchers to

review transcripts several times. There are multiple coding techniques and

methods that a researcher can use, and thus the technique a researcher uses

should align with the epistemological, theoretical, and methodological framework

of the study (Saldaña, 2016). Out of the coding process comes the themes that

frame the research findings.

In the first round of coding, I utilized what is known as “in vivo coding,” which takes

the actual words or short phrases that the respondents articulate as the codes

themselves (Saldaña, 2016). In this approach, the researcher does not label or

summarize the respondent’s intent because this technique gives primacy to the

meanings and language of the participants, which, as noted above, reflects the

epistemological and theoretical approach of this project. Generally, this process

results in a large number of codes. For example, in the excerpts below,

participants were asked to discuss their motivations to be the first in their families

to attend college. From their responses emerged the codes “want better for us”

and “owed it to my parents”

I think it was just really to do better than – I mean nothing against my

family – I just wanted to do better for us. I think I’m doing it for everyone

else in my family so that’s my goal and that’s what I’m trying to do

SAGE



2



College Success

(Ricardo, age 23).

And mostly I really felt like I kind of owed it to my parents … my parents

have worked their whole lives so I felt like, you know, I was kind of – I

owed them something (Felix, age 22).

To illustrate this in another example, participants were asked to first describe who,

if anyone, they relied on for emotional support and second, what that support

looked like. Codes that emerged from this line of questioning from Gabriela’s

interview were “Parents and sisters” for the first question and “listening,”

“someone to come home to,” and “affectionate” for the second.

Interviewer: Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about emotional support –

who are the people in your life that you think are providing you with – if

any – emotional support.

Gabriela: My parents and my sisters.

Interviewer: Okay and what does that emotional support look like – what

kinds of things would you rely upon them for?

Gabriela: Just listening, I think. Just having someone to come home

to and talk to. And even though she doesn’t know anything … . But when

I’m frustrated or when stuff happened, I can come home and I can tell

them all these things … . My mom’s really really affectionate – she will

sit on the bed with me, she’s like ‘Okay now we’re just going to spoon

and we can watch a movie and don’t worry about it.

Similarly, Ricardo’s interview produced the codes “parents and grandma” and

“talking through it” as noted below.

Interviewer: Who are the people, if any, in your life that you would

SAGE



2



College Success

consider your core emotional support?

Ricardo: I would say my parents, both of my parents, and my grandma.

That’s pretty much it.

Interviewer: What are some ways in which you feel like those people

give you the support that you need?

Ricardo: Well my grandma, when I talk to her, she’s always trying to

figure out what’s wrong with me or like if something’s going on. And

I get to the point where when she asks me constantly, I just tell her

if something went wrong. Then she’ll like talk to me about it. And my

parents, just whenever I’m struggling or something, I would just tell them,

I would just give them a call. And they would just talk me through it and

kind of just tell me things are going to work out eventually.

From Codes to Themes

Once the first round of coding was completed, I conducted a second round of

coding using what is called “pattern coding,” which groups related codes into

larger categories and thereby reduces the number of codes into more manageable

categories (Saldaña, 2016). Thus, unlike in vivo coding, codes are derived from

the researcher rather than the respondents’ language. Applying this to the above

examples, I categorized “want better for us” and “owed it to my parents” as

“financially support family.” In both examples, students were motivated to attend

college because they wanted to be able to support their families later in life. This

is evident when Ricardo mentioned he wanted to provide something better for his

family (not just himself), and Felix mentioned that his parents had been working

their whole lives (for him), and he felt that he owed them something financially in

return.

Similarly, when participants were asked who they depend on for emotional

SAGE



2



College Success

support, “parents and sisters” and “parents and grandma” were categorized as

“family.” Other codes that developed in this round included “university personnel”

(which included the in vivo codes “faculty,” “administrators,” and “advisors”) and

“peers” (which included the in vivo codes “club members” and “friends”).

Furthermore, in reference to the question about what emotional support looks

like, the in vivo codes “listening” and “talking through it” from round one were

categorized as “sympathetic listening.” In the examples presented above, both

Gabriela and Ricardo talked about just having someone that they can talk to or

with – someone who will be sympathetic and tell them that things will work out.

Likewise, the in vivo code “affectionate” was categorized with other first round

codes like “hugging” and “hand holding” as “physical affection” in the second

round.

Though the terms themes and codes are often used interchangeably, themes are

phrases that derive from the codes and help the researcher move from a mere

description of the data to an interpretation (Saldaña, 2016). In developing themes,

the broad topics from the interview guide can provide a useful context. For

example, in questions related to “motivations for attending college,” the pattern

code “financially support family” consistently appeared across a multitude of

interviews. From this code, the theme of collective family upward mobility rather

than just individual upward mobility emerged as a primary motivator for first-

generation students attending college. Students attend not just to pursue

individualistic goals towards their own financial success but rather with the

intention of supporting and even uplifting the entire family. Additionally, the theme

addresses the broader research question of how first-generation Latinx students

construct the role of their families within the context of their college experiences.

Another prominent code was “family,” which emerged in the context of the

interview questions related to sources of emotional support. From this came the

theme families are a primary source of emotional support, which again speaks

SAGE



2



College Success

to the first of the three broad research questions listed above. Another theme

was family emotional support is primarily non-academic. In other words, the

emotional support that families provide generally consists of hearing complaints

about academic stress or offering unconditional affection. Families can offer very

little in terms of specific strategies for dealing with academic problems, but

students nonetheless see their support as invaluable. This theme addresses the

third research question, which speaks to the extent to which students draw upon

family members for support.

Summary

The steps outlined in this exemplar offer one example of how to analyze qualitative

data from the coding to process to thematic development. An important

component of qualitative data analysis is understanding how epistemological and

theoretical frameworks guide all aspects of the study, including the research

questions, methodological approach, and the techniques used for analyzing data.

In this example, the constructivist approach suggested primacy be given to the

meanings participants attach to their families and the support they receive. This

is reflected in the first round of in vivo coding where codes reflect the language

participants themselves used. From there, a second round of pattern coding

focused on broader categories that represented the meanings articulated in the

in vivo coding. Finally, from the pattern codes emerged the broader themes that

emerged from the interview topics and ultimately connected back to the research

questions themselves.

Reflective Questions

1. What is the author’s epistemological framework and how exactly is that

shaping the author’s choice of methodology and data analysis

techniques?

SAGE



2



College Success

2. What problems can arise when researchers do not consider how

epistemological or theoretical underpinnings should guide

methodology and data analysis?

3. Conduct in vivo coding from the passages provided. What other codes

emerge besides the ones the researcher has presented here in this

exemplar?

4. Group in vivo codes into pattern codes and themes. What other

themes emerge besides the ones presented by the researcher in this

exemplar?

Further Reading

Engle, J., & Tinto, V. (2008). Moving beyond access: College success for low-

income, first generation students. Washington, DC: The Pell Institute.

Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (4th ed.).

Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Jones, S. R., Torres, V., & Arminio, J. (2014). Negotiating the complexities of

qualitative research in higher education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Legard, R., Keegan, J., & Ward, K. (2003). In-depth interviews. In J. Ritchie &

J. Lewis (Eds.), Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students

and researchers (pp. 138–169). London, UK: SAGE.

Ritchie, J. (2003). The applications of qualitative methods to social research. In J.

Ritchie & J. Lewis (Eds.), Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science

students and researchers (pp. 24–46). London, UK: SAGE.

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2012). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing

data (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London, UK:

SAGE



2



College Success

SAGE.

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of

community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 8(1), 69–91. Retrieved

from https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006

SAGE



2



College Success

https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006

coding and analyzing semi-structured interviews: first

Documents