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>> 149 5 Building Theory It is relatively easy to write up individual stories as thick, local qualitative descriptions without revealing the webs of power that connect institutional and individual lives to larger social formations. Yet, if we do not draw these lines for readers, we render them invisible, colluding in the obfuscation of the structural conditions that undergird social inequities. It seems clear that researchers, as public intellectuals , have a responsibility to make visible the strings that attach political and moral conditions with individual lives. If we don’t, few will. Rendering visible is precisely the task of theory, and as such, must be taken up by method. —Weis and Fine (2004, p. xxi) Like other phases of a qualitative design, the shift from analyzing to synthesizing thematic patterns is iterative and cumulative. The process of looping back through data collection and analysis begins to ease up as the constitutive analytical threads are secured in place. While some threads might still need reconnecting, or removal, there develops a gradual sense of having exhausted thematic possibilities at the level of coding and clustering codes into categories related to the research question . There is a bit of winnowing, too, as some thematic codes and clusters are placed on hold for later exploration. In this chapter I discuss the progressive movement into synthesizing your research findings. I outline the process of drawing meaning from the products of your analysis toward articulating a conceptual framework . This is a very exciting phase of the research. The systematic collection and analysis of your data have yielded thematic patterns that now require you to further interpret their meaning and respond to your 150 > 151 you to formulate explanatory possibilities, drawn from connections and contradictions evident across thematic categories. The intent here is to see how far you can take these thematic categories in conceptualizing a response toward your research question. As with every phase of the research, the strength of your conceptualizing depends on the degree to which you have systematically collected and analyzed the data, producing thematic patterns that offer analytical substance and resiliency. A summary of these steps is provided within figure 5-2. Drawing pictures, or graphic renditions, helps you work toward conceptualizing relationships and meaning across key analytical themes. Such displays range from penciling configurations on your napkin at a local coffeeshop to utilizing computer software features to map out ideas. Graphics such as matrices and circles, sometimes connected through lines and arrows, are instrumental in exploring processes, hierarchies, and other patterns of relationships. Through this use of diagramming and drawing charts, you can document and explore connections, questions , partial leads, dead ends, and potential advances, working toward a good interpretive fit across thematic categories. A graphic display Figure 5-1. Interpretive activities Analysis: breaking down data into thematic codes Synthesis: drawing related codes into categories Movement toward conceptualizing meaning: exploring thematic relationships in response to research question 152 > 153 An additional tool in synthesizing thematic patterns is through some form of engagement with critical friends. This type of engagement typically involves individuals who are knowledgeable of the topic of your study. They may be intimately connected to the research context , or they may be outsiders to the particular context but not to the phenomenon of study. They may also bring a level of familiarity with the theoretical base from which the study draws. Discussing your synthesizing of thematic patterns with those who play the role of critical friends will press you to articulate the basis on which you are drawing your conclusions, will locate gaps in your thinking, and will strengthen your interpretation. As you move into synthesizing thematic patterns, you may return to the literature from which the research drew its question, design, and analytical framework. Although never fully severed from theory, the research necessitates a reengagement with theory in the interpretation of study findings. This allows you to consider extant theory in relation to thematic categories. It is likely that you have entertained theory already, as noted in earlier chapters on data collection and analysis, even as you have sought immersion in the empirical data. At this point in the research, articulating connections across thematic categories and in relation to the literature is appropriate and necessary. From this you begin to craft a conceptual framework that will yield greater depth in understanding your research topic. It would be misleading, however, to suggest that the interpretive activities of analysis and synthesis occur in stages or are linear. Instead, they are far...

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