An Introduction to Thematic Analysis
Virtual Workshop
Johnny Saldaña, Arizona State University’s School of Film, Dance, and Theatre
Hosted by The Qualitative Report at Nova Southeastern University (Virtual)
October 1, 2024
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Eastern USA Time (1 Hour Lunch Break)
Registration Now Open
(Enrollment is limited)
Johnny Saldaña Biography
Johnny Saldaña is Professor Emeritus from Arizona State University’s School of Film, Dance, and Theatre. He is the author of Longitudinal Qualitative Research: Analyzing Change through Time, Fundamentals of Qualitative Research, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind, Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage, Writing Qualitatively: The Selected Works of Johnny Saldaña, co-author with the late Miles and Huberman for Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook, and co-author with Matt Omasta for Qualitative Research: Analyzing Life. His forthcoming 2024 title from Sage Publishing is Developing Theory Through Qualitative Inquiry. Saldaña’s qualitative methods works have been cited and referenced in more than 35,000 research studies conducted in over 135 countries.
Themes are arguably the most frequent outcomes reported in published qualitative research reports. But there is no consensus in the methods literature for a definition of theme and its properties. Also, some researchers mistakenly identify a category as a theme—the former a short descriptor for a collection of comparable codes, and the latter an extended phrase or complete sentence that identifies the ideas inherent in the data’s patterns.
This workshop presents two approaches to “themeing the data”: categorically and phenomenologically. Categorical themes identify the descriptive patterns or topics in a data set, while phenomenological themes hone in on the data’s latent meanings and researcher interpretations. The workshop’s data sets for themeing exercises consist of a case study of becoming physically disabled, and a synthesis of codes related to the phenomenon of happiness.
Workshop content is derived from the co-authored Qualitative Research: Analyzing Life (2nd edition, 2022, Sage) and Saldaña’s The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (4th edition, 2021, Sage).
The workshop will take place via the Zoom platform.