Data Analysis Experiences: Self-Produced vs. Alien Data

Data analysis is one of the core phases of qualitative research. This presentation aimed to share data analysis experiences of a team of researchers in a mathematics education study using three- tiered modeling research as a methodologic orientation. This study had three tiers: Tier 1-Pre-service mathematics teachers, Tier 2- A team of researchers, and Tier 3-Principal researcher. The team of researchers in Tier 2 composed of four researchers having different interests and teaching experiences as well as different knowledge of and skills in qualitative inquiry, which brought different perspectives to the data analysis. Furthermore, their researcher positions vary on the insider-outsider continuum with respect to the data. While one researcher collected the data, two of them produced the data which was going to be analyzed. On the other hand, the data was alien to the fourth researcher; that is, his first interaction with the data was at analysis process. In this study, I will present the experiences these researchers by addressing the following research question: “How is it different to analyze your own data, the data you collected and an alien data that you just saw at the analysis phase?” Both advantages and disadvantages of being various proximities to the data are going to be discussed and exemplified with researchers’ narratives. I believe that it is important to discuss individual and collaborative data analysis experiences of researchers having various positions and interactions with the data in order to enhance our understanding of researchers’ caring each other in a qualitative research